It wasn’t all good news for the BMC Racing team today at la Flèche Wallonne. While World champion Cadel Evans was celebrating his victory atop the Mur de Huy, his teammate Karsten Kroon was on his way to hospital with facial injuries.
A crash in the peloton with less than 80km to go, that also brought down RadioShack riders Sergio Paulinho and Yaroslav Popovych, saw Kroon hit a guardrail with his face. Initial investigations in the hospital at Huy show that the Dutchman has fractured his nose, jaw and eye socket, according to Belga.
Aside from the personal tragedy of Kroon’s injuries, his abandonment could have spelled disaster for eventual winner Evans. “He was the guy I was going to rely on,” said Evans of his injured teammate, “but Mathias Frank and Steve Morabito were there for as much as they could be and they did everything they could to help me.”
According to the BMC racing Team, Kroon will be released from hospital after treatment, but will obviously not be able to take part in Sunday’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege. It is not currently known how quickly the Dutchman is expected to recover, or when he will be able to return to racing.