Dubai: BMC Racing Team’s Klaas Lodewyck has been ruled out for at least three weeks after the rider broke his right collarbone during Friday’s Stage Three of the Dubai Tour.
Lodewyck was involved in a regulation crash midway through the stage. The peloton was crossing a grate covered by carpet on a downhill section when the carpet suddenly lifted off the ground and Lodewyck went down along with several other cyclists.
Lodewyck was taken to Rashid Hospital where X-rays confirmed an undisplaced fracture of the right clavicle, the same spot that the BMC Racing Team rider had injured last season.
“He will fly off to Belgium on Sunday and go see the same doctor who did the surgery on him on Monday,” BMC Racing Team’s Dr Roger PalFreeman told Gulf News.
Friday’s setback was the latest in a series of medical maladies for Lodewyck. Last September, he underwent surgery to correct an irregular heartbeat and in June, he had broken the same collarbone in a crash while racing with the Belgian national team.
“Right now, his shoulder has been immobilized and in a hand-sling. From preliminary observations it may be that he may not have to undergo any surgery since the bone has broken at the end of the metal plate that was inserted last year in the same shoulder. For the moment, I have given him pain relief and made him comfortable. Ultimately the surgeon in Belgium will decide on the surgery part when he sees Lodewyck on Monday,” the team doctor said.
Under normal circumstances, riders get back into indoor training on turbos within a week to keep fit. Most often they start road training within three weeks and get back into action at races within a month. “Sometimes these cyclists are back into action even earlier than this,” Dr. PalFreeman said.
