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Annemiek van Vleuten out of hospital as recovery continues

Dutch rider injured in horrific crash in the women's Olympic road race set to return to Netherlands

The 33-year-old, who sustained severe concussion and three fractures in her spine, was discharged yesterday and is currently in a hotel in Rio where she is receiving round-the-clock care from medical staff of the Dutch Olympic team.

Dr Cees Rien van Hoogenband, said: “An MRI scan showed there is no further injury. The most important thing is she needs absolute peace at this time.”

Yesterday, van Vleuten tweeted a picture of herself and expressed thanks to those who had sent her messages of support "Thanks for all the messages. Hard to deal with my disappointment but also proud about our performance"

Chef de Mission Maurits Hendriks, who visited van Vleuten yesterday, said: "On the one hand she is excited about her recovery, but on the other she is deeply disappointed at missing out on a gold medal. “She is working very hard on her recovery,” he added.

After multiple crashes in both the men’s and women’s road races, including a particularly horrific crash by Annemiek van Vleuten, many have called the course too dangerous and have critised the UCI for allowing it. In response, the UCI has moved to defend itself and the course design.

“The Rio 2016 road race course was carefully designed and was extensively tested at the test event and in training,” said the UCI. “We do our utmost to design safe, challenging courses but unfortunately crashes do sometimes occur due to a combination of factors.

One of the more vocal critics was Great Britain’s Chris Boardman, a Tour de France stage winner who won Olympic gold on the track in 1992. While he said he appreciated the tough course and understood that crashes are going to happen, his specific critcisms involved the placement of the technical descent so close to the finish and the lack of safety protection where crashes were likely to occur.

“A 20cm deep drop off at the edge of the road and sharp concrete edges running exposed for 99% of the descent at a point in the race where crashes were going to happen, was not acceptable. It should not have been signed off. As much as I loved the course including that descent, if these hazards could not be managed – due to either cost or practicalities – then the descent should not have been in the race let alone the final.”

“To reiterate, my anger was not about crashes – which are inevitable and normal – it was the potential for avoidable catastrophe if and when I rider did. The stakes should not be that high to win a bike race. I hope lessons were learned, this time we got away with it.”