A day of bad luck on the opening stage at the Renewi Tour saw Team dsm-firmenich PostNL unfortunately involved in several crashes, with Nils Eekhoff, John Degenkolb and Alex Edmondson all going down. Eekhoff abandoned the race before the finish and required a visit to the local hospital straight from the incident, while both Degenkolb and Edmondson continued to the line having been cleared by the race doctor to continue. The latter two were further assessed by the team’s medical staff yesterday evening and again this morning. Edmondson is experiencing some pain with an injury to his wrist but is cleared to start. However unfortunately, Degenkolb’s almost three full years of continuously finishing every race he starts without a DNF has come to an end, and our medical team have made the decision to take him out of the race today.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL physician Camiel Aldershof explained: “Nils was taken to hospital and treated for a wound on his right knee which was cleaned and disinfected, before being stitched up. Alongside that, he also suffered multiple abrasions over his body due to the high speed impact. He will take the time off to recover before slowly remobilising his body and returning to training when he is fit to do so.
“John also had quite a hard impact and has superficial wounds. Alongside that, in the evening he began to show signs of concussion so in terms of his long term health and safety it is a clear decision that he can take no further part in the race, and go home to rest and recover. We will continue to monitor him before any further decision is made on his return to training or racing.
“Finally, Alex suffered a small cut on his knee which required stitches and he landed quite heavily on his wrist, which is causing him some pain and discomfort at the moment. He is currently medically cleared to continue the race but we will monitor how he goes in the next days and see if any further action is required.”
The rest of the team in Fabio Jakobsen, Timo Roosen, Frank van den Broek and Bram Welten are all in good health and motivated to continue the race.
