Joris Nieuwenhuis rides to podium in Heusden-Zolder with a crack in his finger: "My legs ultimately hurt more than my finger"
CyclocrossThursday, 28 December 2023 at 07:00
Cyclocrossers are tough creatures, we know that, but Joris Nieuwenhuis took this yet another level. The Baloise - Trek Lions rode the Heusden-Zolder cross on Wednesday with a crack in his finger, but was ultimately allowed to raise his finger in the air on the final podium as number three in the results.
It was a short night for the Dutchman, who was in hospital until midnight to have his index finger checked after a collision in Gavere. It eventually turned out to have a crack in it, but he didn't give up. "I tried to accept that and just carry on, in a kind of stoic way. I can live with this result, because I wasn't comfortable with it either. I made too many small mistakes, so I'm really happy with this."
"It did bother me, it hurt. I don't think I rode a bad cross, considering my finger. There were a lot of holes in that descent and it really hurt, but as long as the legs hurt even more it was okay. I had the focus, those legs ultimately hurt more than my finger," he laughs.
"I wanted to defend that ranking in the Superprestige, where I think I am now second," Nieuwenhuis explained his choice to start today. "Then you have to move on. And I always think it is a very nice cross here, which I always enjoy riding. I have already been on podium here with Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, so I have good memories of it."
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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
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