Annemiek van Vleuten has made her first public comments to re-assure everyone she is Okay, but not before attending to a little bit of other business first.
Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten was the talk of world cycling and the Olympics yesterday when TV pictures of her being knocked out cold in a horrible high-speed crash in the women's road race in Rio were broadcast live around the world.
And while she was taken to hospital after crashing on the descent of Vista Chinesa not far from the finish and has been diagnosed with three small fractures in her spine, she has sent out her first couple of Tweets to re-assure everyone she is OK.
However, despite being the victim of a crash that genuinely could have been fatal and which robbed her of a chance at an Olympic gold medal - as she was leading the race at the time; the first thing she did was to congratulate her team mates in a Tweet.
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Her compatriot Anna van der Breggen went on to win the race and van Vleuten sent out a Tweet congratulating her and saying the team were "super strong".
It was only when she acknowledged and congratulated her compatriots that she turned to an update on her own conditions.
"I am now in the hospital with some injuries and fractures, but will be fine," she said. "Most of all super disappointed after best race of my career."
Thank God she's OK. And judging by those comments it looks like the old cliché is true; once a competitor always a competitor.
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Thanks for all the messages! Congrats to @AnnavdBreggen! We were a super strong team today with @ellenvdijk and @marianne_vos.
— Annemiek van Vleuten (@AvVleuten) August 8, 2016
I am now in the hospital with some injuries and fractures, but will be fine. Most of all super disappointed after best race of my career.
— Annemiek van Vleuten (@AvVleuten) August 8, 2016
Van Vleuten (33), like Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) and Sergio Henao (Colombia) in Saturday’s men’s race, was in a potentially gold-medal winning position when she fell on the same treacherous descent of the final climb.
Ireland’s Dan Martin was very critical of the dangerous descent after the men’s race, saying had it been raining things could have gone very badly wrong for a huge number of riders.
Van Vleuten overshot a right hand sweep and after initially skidding towards the opposite side of the road she appeared to lock her front wheel.
She then tumbled over the handlebars and came down very hard on her head on a concrete open drain at the side of the road.
She lay completely motionless as the TV cameras went past her, with many people fearing the worst.
She was leading the race solo by about 30 seconds from Mara Abbott; the American rider then pressing on at the head of affairs and only being caught well inside the final 500 metres by a group of three who took the medals.
Van der Breggen won gold from Sweden’s Emma Johansson and Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini, who towed the other two across the last portion of the gap to Abbott.
There were no Irish riders in the race.
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