2024 04 19
How is he feeling?
“Every day feel body improving, pain is getting less and less. Since Monday or Tuesday I can sleep.”
You’re not a proper cyclist if you haven’t had a broken collarbone?
“I’ve had to go through the pain, but it’s the most easy injury for a cyclist.”
Does it help having had crashes before.
“Yes. Maybe rushing myself too much in the past has helped to calm me down, to let the injuries heal completely before getting on the bike again, before doing proper gym exercises. I try to enjoy a lot of my time now. I hope after the weekend I can start to build up again on the bike, off the bike and get back into the pro cycling life. I did some physio work, I did some easier gym work to not let the muscles stop completely, to keep the body moving. Riding outside, I couldn’t do that at all, the bouncing and the risk of crashing with Belgian weather. I’m going to try the rollers soon. It shouldn’t give me problems, it’s just the collarbone. My scapula has actually healed quite a bit, so that’s good. So it’s going to restart again in a few days. I hope it will not take me too long to feel good again.”
What have you been doing in your down time?
Spent time with wife’s family for Ramadan
“Slept a lot. With the injuries, my body was quite tired from the surgery and everything was still quite low energy.”
Watched a lot of football, some classics.
Is it hard to watch the races?
“First time I was going to ride it, was in good shape and very ambitious. It was a bit of a shame but lovely to watch. I think I would have enjoyed my time on the bike. For Sunday it’s going to be hard, but in the end I have the idea in the back of my mind that I won it already two times. So that makes it a bit easier to digest. For Amstel it was a bit more difficult than for the other two races.”
Have you watched the crash and analyzed it?
“On the way to the hospital the day after the crash. I watched it a couple of times. I think if you look closely to the movement of my bike, you can really see that I took the wrong line. It was on the bumpy side of the road and I just didn’t have the control of my bike any more. I think with the last bump I hit, I had a little traction with my back tire. I was braking because I was feeling that I was going out of the corner and I think on the moment that my tire touches or makes contact with the road again, I made a slip or the wheel blocked a bit and my bike made a movement to the left which caused the following which was the jumping over the gutter. We took the front of the descent because it was a tricky descent and once you were in position, you would stay there until the last climb. So you were really focused on that and doing really well. I just hit the bumps and I didn’t have control of my bike any more.We were going 81 kilometers per hour in the corner.
You see how fast I went into the forest as well or on the grass. So that’s when you realize it was really fast. Afterwards it’s easy to say I should have bent my bike more to the right to be able to keep up with the corner. Everything went so quick and fast that the crash itself, before I knew I was sitting up and holding my shoulder like something’s wrong.
I’m happy that all the riders are doing okay. My injuries compared to some of the guys.”
Have you spoken to any of the guys?
“Primoz was laying next to me in the hospital in Victoria. All the riders were coming in. With him just a small chat. I sent Jonas a message yesterday to ask how he was. I saw the posts of the Belgian guys on social media that they were doing okay. It’s good that nobody has bigger injuries or even more crazy injuries.”
Tour de France
“I hope I will still go to the Tour.” And to Paris for the Olympics.
