That Marten van Riel lost a lot of time yesterday at Ironman Cozumel due to a hard crash was almost immediately clear, but what exactly had actually happened remained uncertain for a long time. It turned out that the Belgian athlete – losing control of his bike after riding into a hole in the road – had crashed into a spectator along the side of the course and thus crashed down in the process. “This is not how I expected my first Ironman to plan out,” he said.
That reaction makes sense, as Van Riel is perhaps in the best shape of his life and he was in the lead for almost the entire day and also seemed to have the best papers for the closing marathon. That is, until he rode his bike into a hole in the road after 175 kilometers, lost control of the handlebars, hit a young girl on the side of the road at about 50 kilometers per hour and crashed. Van Riel got away with a few significant abrasions, especially to the elbows, and the girl also made up relatively well with only a cut on her hand, but Van Riel then lost a lot of time waiting for the ambulance and the police who – remarkably during the race – had to make a report of the incident.
“After the race I got brought to the hospital to get my elbows stitched and do some x-rays. Cozumel has only one hospital so the girl was also there and I was able to talk with her and give her my finisher medal and a shirt. Her mom told me that every year she watches the race, and I really hope this won’t change that!”
