Lotto Belisol rider Jurgen Roelandts has been forced to undergo 72 hours of observation in the stroke department of the ‘Onze Lieve Vrouw’ hospital in Aalst after complications arose from his crash one month ago.
The Belgian hit the deck hard on the opening stage of the Tour Down Under on January 17th, fracturing a bone in his neck. He has been recovering since and was due to accompany his team to the Algarve where he would continue his buildup to his racing return with some warm weather training. However he suddenly became dizzy yesterday and was taken to the neurosurgery department in the hospital.
According to his team, the situation was a potentially very serious one. “The conclusion was that the blood vessel that got bruised during the accident was fully blocked,” it said in a communication. “This was caused by a tear in his neck artery. This explains his new symptoms because the blood flow to his brain was blocked.”
He has been under observation since but fortunately the only symptom that has been detected is that dizziness. The team expects to know more about the situation on Thursday, when it will have a better estimation about his recovery time and when he will be able to resume training.
He had been aiming to return to competition in the Tirreno-Adriatico race, which begins on March 7th. His goal was to use that to build his condition prior to the Flemish Classics. However both sets of events are under question now, with a full and proper recovery from his artery problem taking priority.