Trek-Segafredo DS had not returned home after morning bike ride, found by helicopter search
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Steven de Jongh planning tactics from the team car(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Steven de Jongh is lead DS for Tinkoff-Saxo at the Giro (Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Tinkoff-Saxo DS Steven de Jongh joined the ride(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Steven De Jongh was chilled before the start.(Image credit: Bert Geerts/dcp-bertgeerts@xs4all.nl)
Steven de Jongh with Alberto Contador on the podium(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Steven De Jongh, a directeur sportif at the Trek-Segafredo team, was reported missing after going out to ride his bike on Monday morning. He was found through the search efforts of Catalan police and taken to hospital but the extent of his health condition have not been released. According to an update from Trek-Segafredo he is conscious and in hospital.
The Dutch news outlet ADreported that following a search with car and helicopter, the Catalan police found De Jongh unconscious near the side of the road, where he lay in a ravine for up to five hours. He was taken to a hospital in Girona.
The Dutchman left his home in Girona, Spain, at around 10:30 a.m. but had not returned and had not made contact with anyone since, leading his wife, Renee Meijer, to report him missing to the local police.
Meijer also made a plea for help via social media, writing: "People of Twitter help me please. My husband Steven De Jongh went on his bike and is missing since 10.30. Around La Ganga area. If you are there help me please to find him. He went on a Trek bike in a Trek suit. Retweet please."
She later posted on Twitter that he had been found through the search efforts of the Catalan police. "Thank you kind people, the helicopter has found @stevendejongh . More news later. He breaths and has a pulse."
De Jongh's ride had been uploaded to his public account on Strava, a tool for tracking rides and training. It showed he left the village of Calogne, on the Catalan coast south west of Girona, and rode for 62.5km and just over two hours in and around the inland Gavarres hills. The ride stopped on a road just south of La Bisbal d'Emporda, between 10 and 15 kilometres from where he'd started out.
De Jongh was a successful classics rider during his professional racing career and has worked as a sports director since his retirement in 2009, first at Team Sky, then at Tinkoff-Saxo, and lastly at Trek-Segafredo since 2017.
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