Medical Update: Broken jaw and tooth for Nils Eekhoff after a high-speed AlUla Tour crash

The third stage of AlUla Tour was a full-pledged chaos thanks to echelons that broke up the race in the final phases. Some riders lost their GC positions, others were blown of the asphalt and even more men punctured... but it was ultimately Nils Eekhoff who suffered the biggest hardship.

With just about 500 meters from the line, Spanish rider Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) lost control over his bicycle after a momentarily loss of concentration in the hectic finale. He fell right in front of Nils Eekhoff who attempted to evade the obstacle by swerving to right, but it was too late to prevent a terrifying crash. The Dutch rider was sent flying head-first into a pole by the roadside.

Luckily we have seen him respond to medical assistance before being rushed to hospital in an ambulance. Now we were provided more info about his health state by Team Picnic PostNL, who assure that Eekhoff got away relatively easy. We say relatively, but his injuries will still see him sidelined for about two months, most likely missing out on most of the cobbled campaign he was looking forward to.

"Nils suffered a hard blow during the fall. He broke a tooth and suffered a fractured jaw. For now, he has been discharged by the local hospital, but as soon as he is back in the Netherlands, we will perform further examinations with our specialists to determine whether surgery is necessary. Given the nature of the injuries, we expect him to be out of action for six to eight weeks, but this can of course change based on the additional examinations," informs Team Picnic PostNL doctor Camiel Aldershof in a press communication.

The fourth stage with often decisive climb to Harrat Uwayrid will start briefly and Eekhoff's teammate Frank van den Broek will try to move up from the 7th place in the GC.