Medical bulletin Tour of Flanders: Picnic PostNL hit hard, Longo Borghini in hospital after severe crash

The day after the Tour of Flanders, world champions Tadej Pogacar and Lotte Kopecky catch their breath after their victory rides in the second Monument of the year. They will still feel the euphoria, but others will be less fortunate. Several crashes along the way, especially among the women, occurred. The consequences were not too bad for some, but others did not escape unscathed.

A crash occurred on a wide road quite early in the men's race. An EF Education—EasyPost rider got caught in the crash and fell into the peloton. There was no avoiding the chaos, and a major crash resulted. Mathieu van der Poel was also involved, but fortunately, the defending champion got back on his bike and later finished in third place, behind winner Pogacar. However, others suffered much more serious injuries.

One of these was John Degenkolb. The German was the designated road captain for Picnic PostNL, but he could not avoid the crash. The verdict: a broken collarbone, elbow and wrist. This is a tragedy for Degenkolb, who will have to miss his favorite race, Paris-Roubaix, due to his injuries. But the Dutch team's bad luck was not over. Tim Naberman and Alex Edmondson were also involved in the same crash. Like Degenkolb, our compatriot broke his wrist, and the Australian sprained his ankle.

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UAE Team Emirates and AG2R hit, Longo Borghini taken to hospital

About fifteen other riders were involved in the crash, including many from Alpecin-Deceuninck and UAE Team Emirates—XRG. Jhonatan Narváez and Tim Wellens had to abandon the race, but the extent of their injuries is not yet clear. Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale was also hit hard: Sander De Pestel, Dries De Bondt, and Pierre Gautherat could not continue with the French team. The chaos of Flanders had claimed its victims in the men's race.

But the women were not spared accidents either. There were several crashes in the first 10 kilometers. Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) was one of the unlucky ones, but she got back on her bike, albeit with some abrasions on her leg. For Simone Boilard (Uno-X) and Martina Alzini (Cofidis), however, the race was already over after fifteen minutes. And it was not only that moment of disarray. The ladies kept crashing, and the first major casualty was claimed before the race was halfway through.

Elisa Longo Borghini was the defending champion and the favorite to win in 2025. The Italian champion from UAE Team ADQ had a great run-up to the race with her victory in Dwars door Vlaanderen, but with 100 kilometers to go, she was in a bad way. She was taken to the hospital, where a concussion was diagnosed. Other injuries, such as fractures or internal bleeding, were ruled out. But the Italian did have to stay in the hospital in Ghent overnight.  

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