"Then I saw a lamppost coming towards me" - Nils Eekhoff reveals nasty injuries and dentist trips following AlUla Tour crash
Cycling
Nils Eekhoff, the 27-year-old Team Picnic PostNL rider, is on the road to recovery following a high-speed crash at the AlUla Tour last month. The Dutchman suffered a violent collision with a lamppost during Stage 3, leaving him with multiple injuries, including a fractured jaw and broken teeth.
In an update on his team's website, Eekhoff reflected on the terrifying moment.
"I only saw it at the last moment, and then I couldn't do anything anymore," he explained. "I was blocked. I steered as far to the right as possible to go around him and ended up with my wheel on the curb. I managed to keep my balance for a moment, but eventually I fell over. Then I saw a lamppost coming towards me."
The impact was severe, and as he lay on the ground, he knew something was wrong.
"I didn't immediately know what the damage was. I had pain in my jaw, blood in my mouth, and I heard these cracking sounds, so I just lay there to play it safe. I didn't dare move my neck."
A tough recovery, and an even tougher diet
With his jaw wired shut, eating has become one of the biggest challenges of Eekhoff’s recovery.
"I am not allowed to chew, only eat and drink liquids. In the first week I lived on puree, and now I have switched to rice dishes, but they all have to be pureed. I get all the nutrients I need, but it becomes a bit monotonous without being able to chew."
Despite the painful setback, his focus remains on getting back to racing as soon as possible.
"In the beginning you feel the urge to give up, but then I only thought: I want to come back as soon as possible."
Remarkably, Eekhoff resumed training just four days after the crash, though he has been restricted to indoor sessions.
"Four days after the crash I started again, but indoors on the trainer. I also bruised my hand in the crash, so it is better for my hand to train indoors. That way I also avoid the shocks of the road."
While his recovery timeline remains uncertain, he remains optimistic about returning to full training.
"If everything goes according to plan, it should be doable, but it depends on the recovery of my jaw and the next dentist appointment. Things are going in the right direction. I am in a build-up phase with my training again. Now it is mainly a matter of waiting to see how things develop, but I am doing everything I can to be back as soon as possible."
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- Too much amatuer psychology. How about this: "he was never as good as when he had not suffered multiple career-threatening injuries." What is happening to him is what happened to Alaphilippe, Bernal, and others. You will notice that his two major peers -- MVDP and Mads - are both at their all time best. You will also note that neither is coming off of anything like the same last 18 months that Wout is. Go back to 2022, then roll the tape forward with Wout remaining healhty and one of them having had multiple traumatic falls. Odds are good he'd be at his dominant best and they would not.MidnightRider31-03-2025
- Raymond Poulidor, Alfredo Binda.... where do we stop. If you want to retitle it is Primoz Roglic the bestr rider never to win the tour in the last ten or 20 years then that might be betterslappers6631-03-2025
- Let me help you. Alfredo BindaUpHill31-03-2025
- He'll certainly last it and prob ride his own race, at the front 😁
leedorney31-03-2025 - Gaio Primus Caesar Roglus, Rome is waiting for you, Imperator :-)).
maria2024202431-03-2025 - And he probably wasn’t even at the limit ;-) Have to wonder how much Mads could catch up if he’d tune his physique to be as sharp as MVDPs’Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Respect for giving Van Eetvelt credit there.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- He’s already a star for me for HAVING complained about it, the recent trend having been, let them then try to take advantage by making them sign NDAs ;-)Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Agreed, but if it was a radio thing then all the riders should have the same story and it would be easy to call anyone out. Kind of surprised this isn’t cleared up half officially afterwards, just like the Alaphilippe divorce, seems like once something spreads on the net it kind of gets accepted that everyone wants to have their own truth so no-one bothers to contest anything that’s verifiable anymore, we all just move on.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- maybe. what makes that a LITTLE fishy is that they suddenly hit the gas and started hammering it. even mathieu, who i’ve never heard complain about ANYTHING (other than teenage girls waking him up and being spit on by belgians) was pretty hacked off about the race tactics after the split. i think he was upset for what his teammates had to do, not for the fact he ended up isolated as a result.OCexile31-03-2025