Roelandts suffers eye injury at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

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.

“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.

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*

Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets

After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Join now for unlimited access

Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1