26 apr 2024 om 13:14 Update: 1 uur geleden
Maikel Zijlaard has had a miserable end to his dream week in the Tour de Romandie. The 24-year-old rider from Tudor Pro Cycling performed a stunt on Tuesday by winning the prologue, but crashed hard on Thursday. He suffered a broken elbow.
Zijlaard still climbed in the second stage, but had to give up later in the stage. The Dutchman appears to be suffering from a fracture in his left elbow. Zijlaard undergoes surgery in Basel and will be sidelined for eight weeks.
On Tuesday, Zijlaard surprisingly crowned the winner of the prologue over 2.28 kilometers. With this he kept big names behind him, including Ethan Hayter, Juan Ayuso, Jan Tratnik and Magnus Sheffield.
It was Zijlaard’s biggest victory of his career so far. The born Rotterdammer previously won the Olympia’s Tour, the Dorpenomloop Rucphen and two stages in a Czech stage race. None of these victories were a World Tour race.
With his victory, Zijlaard was briefly the leader of the general classification. A day later he lost the leader’s jersey in the rolling stage to Fribourg.
The Tour de Romandie lasts until Sunday and continues on Friday with a 15.5 kilometer time trial around Oron. The Belgian Thibau Nys is the leader of the general classification.
Tags: Cyclist Zijlaards dream week Romandie ends elbow fracture Cycling
