Cian Uijtdebroeks has been a notable step lower than expected at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana. Hoped to have been a general classification plan-B / luxury domestique for Team Visma | Lease a Bike and Sepp Kuss, the Belgian has not been able to offer up much help.
After suffering big time loss at the end of stage 7, a confused Uijtdebroeks lamented his feeling of dead legs. "We have often said that it could be due to fatigue or 'this or that', but it can't be that it keeps coming back. It can't just be fatigue every time," he complained. In the days since, many experts have been analysing these comments, with Sporza's Jose De Cauwer claiming it sounds a lot like the symptoms of a narrowed femoral artery.
"If we ride calmly, I don't suffer from it. But if I have to make an extreme effort of twenty minutes or half an hour, then I feel it coming," the Team Visma | Lease a Bike prospect updates of his condition to Het Nieuwsblad. "From the moment I have to ride for a very long time, I become acidic. Although it's not a conditional problem, because I'm in good shape."
Uijtdebroeks also admits the potential of a femoral artery issue has been discussed internally at Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Currently however, it's not considered a big enough for the Belgian to abandon the race and as such, he continues to battle and struggle on in Spain.
"Without tests we can't know, but there are symptoms of a narrowed femoral artery. Although there are many things that can give you the same symptoms. But if it is a narrowing of the femoral artery, we shouldn't panic about it," he concludes. "Of course it's not nice to have. What I like to do is cycling and racing. Of course I prefer to be at the front than at the back, but mentally I do recharge and I have the right people around me to stay positive."
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