The Hoogerheide Cyclocross World Championships left us numerous images mainly focused on Mathieu Van der Poel and Wout Van Aert but the men’s race also left us another protagonist: Canadian Michael Van den Ham.
Van den Ham was one of multiple riders affected in a crash that occurred on the first lap of the race and went into the mud with such bad luck that he dislocated a finger in the mishap. However, far from complaining, the Eurosport cameras caught Van der Ham placing his finger straight again in an image that is less curious.
A video that Van den Ham himself did not hesitate to share on his Instagram account ironically about the situation. “Sometimes you have to get out of it. My race was good except for this… mishap. But this will always be the race where I dislocated my finger and put it back on. I’m still not sure what I did and I’m still thinking about it, but it worked, so…”
However Van den Ham finally stayed two laps away from finishing the men’s event in a World Cup in which, despite not being able to achieve a good sporting result, he did win the hearts of the fans for his honor to continue competing despite that fall and dislocating his finger.