The first day of the Six Days of Ghent, one of the most iconic events in track cycling, left us with the hard fall of the Belgian Quick-Step cyclist, Stijn Steels, 33 years old, who ended up with several fractures during the dispute of the first test of Madison.
Steels was one of the main victims in the massive fall and had to be taken to the hospital on a stretcher due to his injuries. Despite the fact that the public seemed nervous at first, the cyclist himself tried to calm them down by raising his hand to indicate that everything was fine and the attendees responded with a big applause to wish him a speedy recovery.
This Wednesday morning the Quick-Step team gave more details about Steels’ medical report, confirming that the cyclist suffered several fractures but that, for the moment, they will not require operations. “After his fall in the Six Days of Ghent, Stijn Steels has been examined tonight. He has a bruised lung and fractures of three ribs and two vertebrae. They are stable fractures and, for the moment, do not require any type of intervention or operation. Please join us in wishing Stijn a full recovery.”
The fall of Steels eclipsed a first day of the Six Days of Ghent in which the Belgian Fabio Van den Bossche and the Dutch Yoeri Havik were the first leaders of the test with 69 points after his victory in the final sprint of the second madison of a competition in which the British Ethan Hayter and Fred Wright (fourth classified with 37 points) also participate and which will mean the farewell to the professional cycling of the Belgian cyclist Iljo Keisse.