Tarling storms the European Championships 🌪 The 19-year-old has been crowned as the European Individual Time Trial champion after beating Bissegger and Van Aert by 42” and 43” respectively 🤯 ________________ 🇪🇺 #EuroRoad23
"I can say that I will lose my best teammate" - Emotional Wout van Aert reacts to 'unfair' news of Van Hooydonck's retirement
CyclingThursday, 21 September 2023 at 11:02
Wout van Aert was unable to take victory at the European Championships in the individual time-trial, finishing third behind Joshua Tarling and Stefan Bissegger. Post-race though, the Belgian's thoughts were elsewhere.
Having suffered a cardiac arrest whilst at the wheel of his car and crashing into a number of other cars, van Aert's Jumbo-Visma and Belgium teammate Nathan Van Hooydonck has now been diagnosed with a heart muscle anomaly and given an internal defibrillator (ICD) which sadly means his professional career in the peloton has been brought to a close.
“It was hanging in the balance. I'm especially grateful that he was able to fight through it,” reflected van Aert in his post-race interview on the day Van Hooydonck was allowed to return home. “For him it is a blow that he can no longer practice his passion. I can say that I will lose my best teammate."
The news of Van Hooydonck's crash has understandably hit van Aert hard as he's admitted over the past few days. “I'm having a hard time with it,” he says, fighting the emotion in his voice as he speaks. “He has already had so much pushback, it is really unfair.”
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- First of all, I hope now all is ok with your baby!. Yeah, about to not accept foreign phone number is a big problem also for me. I have economic interests in 2 countries, I think that all can be ok with my Italian number... but NO! The world is globalized but not for bureaucracies.
maria2024202424-11-2024 - First of all, calm, this is a site to share point of views, doubts, intuitions about cycling. Let's think about it: if someone tells you that he is very tired but is going to run unimportant races immediately, ignoring a world championship much further away in time that would give him the opportunity to rest, there is something very contradictory. Maybe it is fair, but as a simple spectator I (and many others) do not understand it, it does not make sense.maria2024202424-11-2024
- I think the other side has said plenty, given comments about her reputation like what Renz said above. Perhaps this is her chance to speak up against that reputation? I have no idea but her comments seem pretty human, even if each person has their own version of the story.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Give her a team built around her with no competing leaders, like Pogacar has at UAE or Vingegaard has at Visma (seeing how Roglic left), and I wonder how Vollering would do. She’s already so good, and a team dedicated to her could make her even better.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Those injuries, an ability to manage pain and push himself, probably a load of TUEs to help him get back from an awful moment, and competing that hard without the long exercise base that was the norm - no wonder he was exhausted. We’ve now had two consecutive seasons of the second place rider having an injury that interrupts training, and it shows to what level their bodies are tuned for the insane task of winning the Tour. I certainly hope both (and their teams!) are healthy next year. It would be a first, after 4 years.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Winners seem to be like this. Win or lose, it is always on to the next thing. They don’t celebrate the big win, they don’t worry about the painful loss. They move on. It’s an amazing skill. But to be able to ride (and win) while not being able to walk? That’s a level of pain management that boggles my mind. Of course they have it, given what they put their bodies through, but it’s just crazy.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Poor Demi. But she behaves the same way when riding for the national team. Bring me my tiny violin.Renz24-11-2024
- good pointsmij24-11-2024
- Yes, please tell us based on your superior expertise about why JVs training and race schedule is wrong 🧐Crashjames24-11-2024
- I'd like to hear what the other side has to say.mij24-11-2024