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Roelandts suffers eye injury at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

By Cycling News

published 25 February 2013

Icy cold and hard winds damage corneas

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Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Belisol)(Image credit: Photopress.be)

Jurgen Roelandts carries Lotto Belisol's hopes.(Image credit: Barry Ryan)

Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Belisol).(Image credit: Barry Ryan)

Jürgen Roelandts suffered eye damage in Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and will require two to three days of recovery. Despite the injury, the Lotto Belisol rider managed to finish eighth, in the first chase group.

Roelandts wins final Tour Med stage

Roelandts looking to score well in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

“After this Omloop I had problems with my eyes,” he told the Belga news agency. “It's like my eyelids were frozen. At the start of the race I wore glasses but apparently that was not enough to protect my eyes from the icy cold and streaming winds.”

Monday morning he tweeted, “Needed a checkup for my eyes. Result: corneal damage, 2-3days to heal.”

Roelandts was the only one of his team to make the cut and move into the attack group partway through the race, and after the last climb of the day, was in a promising position. But he was unable to respond when eventual winner Luca Paolini (Katusha) and Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) attacked with about 20km to go. “I had used up too much power on the Molenberg,” he said.