Stefan Kung crashed badly in the Euro TT Champ race…horrofying they let him get back on his bike in that conditions.
Warning - graphic image in the article.
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That’s a total failure on the part of race officials, the Swiss team, and any medical personnel there. Never mind the blood, in what scenario where there was that degree of damage to the helmet would a concussion protocol not be automatic?
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100%…
Looks like Van Hooydonck’s career as a professional is over…but he is alive and will bet to see his baby born soon.
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wow, and we think football is bad in the states, something like this shouldnt happen
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I was wondering if we’d discuss it. It will be super interesting (and kind of dictate whether there’s any success) if they work as a team for one rider.
Hoping @Jonathan can get him on the Pod to find out 
Presumably coincidence, but interesting that there have been 2 high profile cases of this in the last year or so now with Sonny Colbrelli and now Van Hooydonck. I think there’s been a massive thread in here before discussing cardiological risk of extreme exercise, more fuel for that fire.
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It’s such a failure from the swiss team car and the officials to let him back on the bike without a proper concussion check and a new helmet. Makes me pretty mad… overall the checks after crashes in cycling are often a joke… Küng has a concussion and a broken clavicle and some additional injuries on the hands. I’m sadly not surprised that on the swiss media no questions were raised why he was allowed to continue…
Sad to hear about Van Hooydonck hope he finds his way after the pro career and that his issue will not negatively impact him back n the future
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Grey jersey for best GC rider over the age of 35
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For the tour they do reward the last person in the race (although its not a jersey) - its called the Lanterne Rouge
Sky won the both awards in 2017 with Chris Froome winning and Luke Rowe being last (he had 3 cracked ribs or something like that) he was discusing on Just Ride (sponsered by redbull) a little while back - quite an interering listen
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Hazard tape jersey (or a dinosaur suit or traffic cone helmet) for the rider who has the most demerits for bad bike handling behaviour.
Helps the rest of the peloton to stay away from them.
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I also wonder whether this incident may shine a light on the lack of visibility in the current TT positions. I know accidents can happen on a standard road bike, but as someone who rides a TT bike with a position similar to some of the fast positions in the pro peloton, there is a tendency to look straight down and glance up the road less frequently. The only surprise is that there are not more crashes of this type.
I totally agree that more should have been done to pull him from the race; shocking that he finished with the helmet in that state.
Ronan just wrote an article on this subject…
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I agree, it is hard to see what could be done in reality.
It’s one of those things, much like the super tuck, it doesn’t “need” to be a UCI regulation, as it should be enough for riders to take some accountability for their own safety, but the problem is that we have young riders or amateurs copying positions without closed roads, radios in their ear, or the skill to warrant it.
If you don’t outlaw it, there will always be riders that push and push and push the boundaries to find the marginal gains.
Someone pointed out that, where he crashed, the barriers, were just starting to diverge from the bright white striping on the road. Almost looks like he followed the white lines right into the barriers. That makes sense to me, and seems like it could be fixed with road markings / warnings more easily than with rules.
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Oh! You may be on to something! I would definitely pay for something that would allow me to look down but see the road ahead. These quite don’t do it. I’m assuming the angle of visibility is off and can’t be adjusted. And more aero. Maybe integrated with the helmet.
It can be a similar situation in sprints, too. Sometimes the barriers deviate from the very clear road markings when they’ve been previously parallel.
Perhaps it’s to keep the sprint straight per UCI course rules but if the sprinter has their head down or are surrounded by riders, they end up deviating by following the road markings instead of the barrier path.
We see this from the helicopter replay whereas they’re in the thick of it.
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Could they paint the shortest line on the course if riders want to keep their head down? I think they do this for some running races.