Injured Dutch cyclist tweets picture from hospital room
Just two days after crashing during the women’s road cycling race, Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten took to Twitter to post an update about her status after the horrific crash.
Thanks for all the messages. Hard to deal with my disappointment but also proud about our performance #teamNL pic.twitter.com/9uRaRniFV6
— Annemiek van Vleuten (@AvVleuten) August 9, 2016
Van Vleuten appears to be in good spirits after losing what seemed to be a certain gold medal in the women’s road race. The two-time Olympian suffered a concussion and three small fractures in her lumbar spine in the fall, but her tweet was encouraging.
She’ll surely have a long recovery ahead of her, but for van Vleuten, her inability to win a medal was the bigger disappointment.
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
The crash happened on the Vista Chinese descent, just a day after several men’s cyclists crashed near the end of the race. While holding a large lead in the race with about 12 kilometers left, van Vleuten seemed to lose control of her bike and hit a curb while descending down the steep hill, flipping over her handlebars off the road. The crash was brutal to watch, leading some, including her mother, to assume the worst about her condition.
The crash was actually the second for the 33-year-old in as many years after getting hit by a car in 2015 while training in Italy and suffering multiple fractures and a collapsed lung.