Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset (Coop-Repsol) made her Paris-Roubaix Femmes debut on Saturday, and finished the already gruelling race in even tougher circumstances than usual as she completed the race with a fractured hip.
The 26-year-old Norwegian had been keeping in touch with the group of favourites, but was involved in a crash with 59km to go. She continued riding and reached the velodrome to finish – within the time limit in 71st place – but found out afterwards that she had sustained a hip fracture in the crash
This meant she rode almost 60km with the injury, including 18km of cobbles in her effort to finish.
"In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea to continue, but at the same time you don’t know how bad the injury is. And it’s Roubaix, so I wanted to finish," Haugset told Cyclingnews from hospital in Belgium on Monday.
"If somebody had told me to stop, I probably would have stopped. But I don’t have that ability to tell myself 'it’s enough now'. When you’re in a race, you want to finish,"
The crash happened on a brief tarmac section between the first and second parts of the Orchies pavé sector. Haugset sat near the end of the 40-strong peloton, 15 seconds behind Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) and Quinty Ton (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), and in a dusty left-hand turn onto the Pavé de l’Abattoir, Alison Avoine (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93) slid out next to her.
"She crashed on the inside of me and took me out. There was no way for me to avoid it. I could feel something wasn’t quite right when I got up. I got help from a very nice spectator who helped me up," Haugset recounted the crash.
Once back on the bike, her target changed from achieving a good result to just finishing the race.
“I could feel that I couldn’t push normally with my left leg, and I couldn’t stand up on the pedals. I did the remainder of the race sitting down with most of the power from the left leg. My body produced a lot of adrenaline, I took caffeine, anything that helped to make it a little bit better,” she said.
Haugset finished in 71st place, exactly 12 minutes behind winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) – who had crashed in the turn onto the first part of the Orchies sector but escaped without injuries and went on to take the victory.
With the adrenaline slowly wearing off as she entered the velodrome, the Norwegian knew she had to get medical attention.
"I spotted our soigneur and had to lean onto him. I knew that I wouldn’t get off the bike on my own. He held me, then two others came to help me off the bike, and then I went to the hospital," she said.
Medical examinations revealed the hip fracture, and she stayed in hospital for two nights, hoping to be discharged on Monday.
Eventually, it was determined that the fracture would not require surgery, putting Haugset onto the road to recovery, with a comeback to racing already targeted for late June.
"I can feel it when I move, but otherwise I’m fine with painkillers. I will hopefully be discharged from the hospital today, then I’m flying home to Norway tomorrow. I will get a second opinion there, but they’re saying six weeks of recovery. Then I will see a specialist in May," she said.
"I think I could be back racing at the end of June. The Norwegian championships are something to look forward to, then we’ll see if it works or not."
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