What will be the lasting image of this year’s Opening Weekend? Will it be Mathieu van der Poel soloing to a career-first victory at Omloop Nieuwsblad? Perhaps it will be Demi Vollering’s lotus pose salute as she won the women’s race? Or Matthew Brennan charging ahead of the field to win the sprint at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne?
For Rick Pluimers of Tudor Pro Cycling, the lasting image was sudden and sore: the sight of the cobbles on the Molenberg, inches away from his face, before they shattered his two front teeth.
While Pluimers’s injuries were easily fixed – he got an emergency dentist appointment that same afternoon and was smiling again by teatime – others weren’t so lucky.
The Dutchman was one of a swathe of riders hurt in what was an attritional and crash-addled start to the WorldTour season in Europe. Thirty-nine men and 28 women did not finish Omloop Nieuwsblad on Saturday. The following day, 34 men failed to reach the gantry of Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, while 69 women did not finish Omloop van het Hageland. That’s almost 170 DNFs across four races.
In a crash at Omloop, Küng suffered a fractured femur that is likely to rule him out of the entire Classics campaign with his new team.
“Given the injury’s location and severity, surgery is necessary,” Tudor Pro Cycling wrote on Instagram on Saturday. “Stefan will remain in the hospital in Belgium overnight. He’ll be transferred to Switzerland as soon as possible, where he is scheduled to undergo surgery early next week.”
“He is currently under the care of our medical team, and we wish him a smooth and speedy recovery,” the team wrote.
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