Daan Olivier sidelined with injury once again
May 09 2018 04:00 pm CET
LottoNL-Jumbo logo
This season has not been a very fortunate one so far for Dutch rider Daan Olivier. The young LottoNL-Jumbo rider crashed during a training in Boulder, Colorado, and broke his left foot and ankle.
This is the second major injury of the season for Olivier, after breaking his knee in the Towards Zero Race in Melbourne in January. He made his comeback surprisingly quickly in the Settimana Ciclista Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in March, after which he participated in the Volta Limburg Classic, the Brabantse Pijl and the Tour of the Alps. The Dutchman now once again has to follow the bike racing on television, after only 12 days of action.
"I was feeling stronger again and I had good some training days in Boulder. Everything was going well. Until now, it's a really bad year for me, but I will recover faster than a few months ago, I believe," Olivier responds on the team’s website.
Olivier was selected to race the Tour of California next week, and was training in Colorado with his teammate Sepp Kuss, who originally is from Colorado. "In a corner to the left, there were a lot of stones on the road. I was behind Sepp's wheel and touched a stone," he added.
"Sepp helped me so much. We were in the middle of nowhere. I tried to continue cycling. But after two kilometres, I was in so much pain that I couldn't go further. Luckily, we were on a busier road then normal. Almost every car stopped to offer some help. I lost a lot of blood. Then, people convinced me to call an ambulance."
Olivier has been riding with Team LottoNL-Jumbo since 2017, after he took a break from cycling. The talented climber started his professional career with Team Giant-Shimano in 2014, but after some promising results he lacked the motivation to continue cycling on a high level. He focused on a different career from 2015 on, but kept participating in amateur races. After winning a few races he returned to professional cycling in 2017 with the Dutch team.
By Siebe Kok
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDS