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Training crash leaves Eenkhoorn with suspected collarbone fracture

published 11 January 2019

Dutchman flies over his handlebars after chain snaps

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Pascal Eenkhoorn (LottoNL-Jumbo) pushes hard during the prologue of the 2018 Tour of Utah in St. George, Utah. (Image credit: Jonathan Devich/Getty Images)

Pascal Eenkhoorn’s preparations for the start of the new season and his Classics campaign have received a blow after the Jumbo-Visma rider suffered a crash that left him with a suspected collarbone fracture.

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Eenkhoorn was training in Spain with his team when the accident occurred. The Dutchman was practising an uphill sprint when his chain snapped, sending him over his handlebars and into a verge on the side of the road.

While waiting for help, Eenkhoorn took a picture of his strewn bike still lying in the grass and a picture of his left shoulder, which showed what appeared to be his collarbone sticking upwards, and posted it to his Twitter feed.

"Unfortunately crashed hard today while doing a sprint uphill," he wrote. "My chain broke and I ended up flipping over and fell a few meters down. Some serious damage but still unknown how long I’ll be out of running. Want to thank @cyclesierra & @JumboVismaRoad for the care taking."

The 21-year-old Eenkhoorn was due to start his second season with Jumbo-Visma team and target Omloop Het Nieuwsblad at the start of March. With close to two months before the race, a broken collarbone would not necessarily rule him out of making his season debut. However, it would seriously hinder his preparations.

Eenkhoorn joined the Jumbo-Visma team last season and rode a reduced Classics campaign, making his debuts at the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix. He is set to return to the two Monuments on top of a full cobbles programme.

Jumbo-Visma’s Classics ambitions will centre largely around Wout van Aert, who joined the team a year earlier than expected after he cut short his contract with Nick Nuyens’ Sniper Cycling. The team also has last year’s Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne winner Dylan Groenewegen and Danny van Poppel in their arsenal.