Flanders - Baloise rider miraculously rescued from a heavy training fall
CyclingWednesday, 04 March 2026 at 23:00
Team Flanders - Baloise is having the best season of its history in a while thanks to their young sprinter Tom Crabbe's two victories at Etoile de Besseges and two weeks later at the Vuelta a Andalucia. But not everyone is on a cloud nine at the moment. Such is the case for Leander Van Hautegem who crashed in a training on Tuesday.
Sporza reports that Van Hautegem crashed during a training in the Koppenberg forest on his gravel bike when things went wrong. He was left undiscovered "for a long time" before a ranger discovered the battered rider.
He was evacuated from the scene by a MUG team (emergeny service) and fire brigade and taken to hospital in nearby Gent.
Team Flanders - Baloise informed about the extent of Van Hautegem's injuries via team website: "More bad luck for Team Flanders-Baloise. After a serious crash during training, Leander Van Hautegem was transported to Ghent University Hospital. The unfortunate Kluisbergen resident suffered a severe concussion, a collapsed lung, and two cracked ribs. Get well soon, Leander!"
The 22-year-old had just completed the Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne this past Sunday in a 95th place with the "gruppetto" alongside Jonathan Milan, Biniam Girmay, or teammate Crabbe.
The man who will celebrate his 23rd birthday next Monday communicated afterwards "I'm Okay" via Instagram short. A positive message given the severity of his injuries. Let's hope for a swift recovery.
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- If you truly didn't care about religion, you'd simply ignore it. Religion is something which everyone chooses (you will always be a slave to something - some choose to be slaves to the merciful God, while others such as yourself appear to be slaves of their own whims, but that is a different matter) and it is not for others to choose someone's religion for them.
Rafionain-Glas04-03-2026 - Definitely a solid respectful human being. I’m a bit sad that he is past the apex of his career. I hope we at least see some occasional flashes of “peak Wout”.mobk04-03-2026
- why I love WVA. instead of bragging, or being crass - he is always a gentleman. I appreciate a rider that says he has no fear for an opponent, or someone that says their goal is to beat him now. if you go in assuming you’re going to lose, why go? but the measured words of Wout shows respect for his opponent, the sport, etc. and then his legs did the talking. he is the best.mij04-03-2026
- I'm not a chauvinist, I'm an atheist. I don't give a f*** about religion. Capish?Mou-Cro-HR04-03-2026
- I mostly agree with you. But in this case, I definitely don't. I think religion is a personal thing. And no one should be judged for their religion, whatever it is. I think you come across as a chauvinist.MajorPayne04-03-2026
- At least WVA is an honest and sincere man, unlike his fans on this portal.MajorPayne04-03-2026
- Mou is short for Moustafa, btw.Rafionain-Glas04-03-2026
- Did it to yourself ahole.
MrCampy04-03-2026 - Remco Mustafa, Rat Ayuso, MVDP and tht Danish Anchovy are missing from Strade Bianche. Remco is missing from San-Remo. Remco is also missing from Flanders and Roubaix. Vini the fish is missing from Lombardy and the worlds. The UCI should call these people out, they are real pussies and cowards... missing out in the biggest races. They race in second and third class races, so they can get BS wins and avoid Pogi. Pogi is in all the big races, even if he keeps losing Milan SanRemo and Paris Roubaix, but he keeps trying every year. That's what real competitive cyclists do. They don't hide in rabbit holes.Mou-Cro-HR04-03-2026
- Managers maybe but sponsors? I very much doubt data would be so easily accessible and it’s a long way to interpret raw data to reverse engineer training methods. Far easier to sign up a rider from your team of interest in order to interrogate them on what sauces were being cooked with. The people involved would probably be working on anonymous files and anything suspicious would be treated by someone without access to the whole file. As we know, it is only to be used as an INDICATOR for who to focus on. Also, if the sauce is just regular normal progression or comparable, it won’t be of interest to ANYONE.Mistermaumau04-03-2026
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