No broken bones for Van der Poel in Olympic MTB crash
No broken bones for Van der Poel in Olympic MTB crash
According to Wielerflits, Mathieu van der Poel did not sustain any fractures in his crash on the opening lap of the cross-country mountain bike race at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.
Van der Poel went over his handlebars as he came off of the Sakura Drop feature on teh course, going down heavily. He spent about a minute on the ground before remounting and continuing, but after a few more laps, he pulled out of the race.
Van der Poel said after his crash that he had expected a ramp to be in place at the section of the course where he fell; the ramp had been there during training runs but was taken out for the race. Other riders in the event appeared to be aware of the change.
Tom Pidcock went on to take the gold medal in the race.
After withdrawing, Van der Poel went to the hospital for further evaluations, with particular concern for his hip.
Fortunately, Wielerflits reports that Dutch national coach Gerben de Knegt said that Van der Poel had not suffered any broken bones.
In a separate Wielerflits story, De Knegt said that Van der Poel was feeling okay despite the mishap and the missed opportunity.
“We have just discussed it extensively. Mathieu was again cheerful and relaxed. ‘On to the next,’ that’s how we’re in it now,” De Knegt said. “No one has died or anything. We evaluated it equally well. The pain point is clear, we don’t have to make a long story about it. It just sucks, period.”
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