Here’s a cyclist who might be well advised to invest in a Euromillions ticket this evening with this kind of luck – Belgium’s Fabio Van den Bossche, who almost crashed through a shop window during today’s men’s under-23 road race at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Flanders.
The 21 year old veered sharply to the right – possibly after a touch of wheels – and somehow managed to unclip and dismount as his bike went from under him (and almost into a wheel-bender type stand), holding his hands out to brace himself for an impact with the window that thankfully when it happened was a relatively gentle one.
“Thank goodness it only ended up like that!” ?
That could’ve been a disastrous crash ???#Flanders2021 pic.twitter.com/DWNRvdgu77
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) September 24, 2021
The incident took place during what has been a crash-strewn start to the 161.1km race from Antwerp to Leuven, with Axel Merckx – presumably dad Eddy is taking the day off from criticising young riders – attributing the falls to a mixture of nervousness and inexperience, according to Sporza.
It’s not the first time Van den Bossche, who is in his second season at the UCI Professional Continental team, Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise, has caught the attention of the TV cameras this year – back in April, he fulfilled one of the dreams that any Belgian kid who’s ever ridden a bike must have, by getting in the break at the Tour of Flanders.

3 thoughts on “Video: Rider almost crashes through shop window at World Championships”
This U23 race is a crash fest
This U23 race is a crash fest. I saw that bloke live, if he’d managed to park his bike into the bike stand it would have been Youtube gold.
Glad he’s ok, obviously, it was a moment.
It was the comment later on
It was the comment later on about knowing the U23 race is a chance to put yourself in the shop window, but he took it literally.
That is one of the worst races I’ve seen for small crashes. Also felt sorry for the NZ rider that missed the corner because they let the lead cars go a different direction to miss a narrow climb.
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Or maybe he should avoid gambling for the rest of the year as he’s used up his quota of good luck. 😀