The Science Behind The Horrific Crash That Hospitalized an Olympic Cyclist

British cyclist Lizzie Armitstead – who competed in the same race as van Vleuten – previously told Cycling Weekly that the course was “brutal” and “really, really hard”.

Mara Abbott of the United States was able to pass the incident unscathed and led until the final few hundred meters, when Van der Breggen seized her opportunity to cross the line first. “I had a very hard crash three years ago, so I know what that means”. “This is sport and that’s what it’s about”.

Armitstead had insisted she was not a favourite in the lead-up and so it turned out. I knew what I was capable of, I knew what i had in my legs and I did as best as I could.

“It’s a deserving Olympic champion for sure”.

Former Olympic individual pursuit champion Chris Boardman expressed his fury at the danger posed by the course, with Vincenzo Nibali and Richie Porte having both suffered fractures in Saturday’s men’s race.

She was knocked unconscious and could have been hurt seriously if she had not been wearing a helmet.

As concern grows about Van Vleuten’s condition the Dutch Cycling Federation offered an update on their rider: “Van Vleuten appears to be okay”.

The 2016 Olympics’ women’s road race was an aggressive, and tight race.

I looked at that road furniture and thought, nobody can crash here and just get up.

Boardman, an Olympic gold medallist in Barcelona in 1992, here commentating for the BBC, said the course was too risky.

Armistead remained defiant in the face of continued criticism, not least by many of her rivals in the peloton, but admitted that the trauma of recent weeks had rendered her “a zombie” at times.

Van Vleuten had only recently fully recovered from major injuries suffered previous year while training in Italy.

Abbott got even closer to victory but the waif-like climber was agonisingly caught just 150 metres from the line.

Another of Britain’s Olympic champions, Victoria Pendleton, said: ‘It is an absolutely incredibly risky course’.

Elsewhere, Andy Murray eased past Viktor Troicki as he got the defence of his Olympic men’s title under way, winning in straight sets 6-3 6-2.

All of Australia’s entries in the Olympic event are professional teammates of Van Vleute at Orica-AIS. She looked for a moment like she might not survive.