A World Cup cyclocross racer was hospitalised after suffering a wound caused by a disc brake, according to her team.
Shirin van Anrooij crashed out of the elite women’s cyclocross World Cup race in Tábor on Sunday (November 29) and was taken to hospital after a disc break is believed to have cut into her arm.
The junior world champion came off her bike in a mass crash right at the start of the race in Tábor and has undergone surgery on her wounds.
Van Anrooij’s team, Telenet-Baloise Lions, put out a statement on Twitter saying: “Shirin Van Anrooij’s forearm was injured by a piece of a disc brake in the crash following the start of the race. She will undergo surgery this evening. At this moment, it looks like no muscles or tendons are heavily damaged,”
Team manager, Sven Nys, said in an interview with Wielerflits he has never seen an injury like it, but Van Anrooij was conscious as she headed to hospital.
“It is an open wound and there is also a fracture,” he said.
“Her hip didn’t look good either. She also lost a lot of blood.
“Now she is in hospital with her mother. You do not want to experience this. The sad thing is that she also saw the gaping wound herself. It’s really bad.”
Other riders who came down in the crash were Loes Sels and Katie Compton, Sels told Wielerflits: “I heard Shirin calling and had to look away, because it didn’t look good. Very bizarre,
“They hooked together and I went on top of [the crash], too. My back was blocked because of that and it was over after the first round. I don’t think it has ever happened in the cross before, such a heavy fall.”
Disc breaks have caused some controversy in road cycling with various occasions including a crash where Owain Doull (Ineos Grenadiers) had his shoe cut open by a disc brake back in 2017.
It hasn’t been as much of a problem in cyclocross as of yet, but this crash does fuel the debate around disc brakes do pose a risk to riders.
