Nothing is worse than training for the most important race of your life, only to fall victim to the elements and land in a ditch.
Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten was taking part in the women"s road race at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, when her bike lost its grip on the slippery road and sent van Vlueten crashing over the curb.
She was just six miles from the finish line when the accident occurred, and video shared by betting site, Spread Ex shows van Vlueten lying on the side of the road.
While she was rushed the hospital, her teammate, Anna van der Breggen was able to cross the finish line first and clinch gold.
Former cyclist and BBC commentator Chris Boardman expressed his outrage over the crash.
"I’m actually quite angry because I looked at the road furniture and thought nobody can crash here and get up,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.
“This was way past technical, this was dangerous.”
After watching the footage, it"s hard to believe that van Vlueten would be OK. Fortunatley, she was able to tweet an update to concerned viewers.
"I am now in the hospital with some injuries and fractures, but will be fine. Most of all super disappointed after best race of my career."
van der Breggen recalled the series of events that occurred, and how she focused on winning gold not just for herself, but for her friend and teammate.
"We saw Annemiek at the side of the road; it was very strange because it just looked not good," the gold medalist said, according to the Guardian.
"That shocked me and I think it shocked us all. It was difficult to carry on from there. Afterwards Emma [Johanssen, Sweden] said – just do it for Annemiek and I thought – yeah, that’s right. We took turns from there and got ourselves into race mode.”
