Hansen's team-mate thought he was dead

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By Susan Westemeyer

Adam Hansen saw it coming but couldn't do anything about it. Sunday in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, the 26 year-old Australian of Team High Road saw a crash happening, which spread across the entire peloton. He tried to get away from it, but couldn't.

"I saw the parked car and as the bunch was coming I put my whole body weight on the riders coming towards me, I couldn't out-power them. I felt like a skinny bike rider playing rugby with a bunch of cattle and I was slammed into a car, over the bonnet, windscreen and last memory was the roof of it."

That wasn't the end of it, though, as team-mate Vicente Reynes later told him. "It seems I landed back on the road and riders smashing into me, he got some bikes off me and a rider, and thought I was dead because of my white eyes, something from Mortal Kombat. He had to keep racing so he turned and on the way back saw the car with my blood over it and really thought I was dead," Hansen noted on his personal website.

He contacted Cyclingnews while still in the hospital on Monday and gave this report. "The two main problems are my shoulder where I have three torn ligaments and some head injuries. The MRI shows things are okay but the EEG didn't give the best results (but hey who are they comparing too? I never said I was normal nor half-normal) so they want me to spend another night here and have another EEG scan tomorrow, to double check."

Having gone face-first into the car, he added that his face looks like it has "been smashed a few times with a baseball bat, black eye and all," and proving that he hadn't lost his sense of humour, added that, "yes, my modelling career is over and I must look for another retirement plan."

He further told Cyclingnews that he didn't know how long he would be out, but that he hoped it wouldn't be long. "For sure I can't do my next two races, which I was looking forward to as I did well last year in them, Le Samyn and Three Days West Flanders. Hopefully my programme won't change and I can just miss those races and go back to my original plan." Meanwhile, he hoped to be released from the hospital Tuesday and to return to his home in the Czech Republic.