Sky staff resuscitate Boels-Dolmans mechanic after heart attack

UCI Women’s WorldTour team Doels-Bolmans has thanked Sir Dave Brailsford and Team Sky’s medical team for the assistance they gave after one of its mechanics suffered a heart attack on Monday, the day after the Amstel Gold Race, won by the team's Chantal Blaak, the reigining road world champioon.

In a statement published on its website on Friday, the Netherands-registered team said that mechanic Richard Steege collapsed at the team hotel, where Sky were also staying, shortly after the riders headed out on a post—race recovery ride on Monday.

Boels-Dolmans said: “Dave Brailsford and the Team Sky medical staff, who stayed in the same hotel, immediately took action and resuscitated Richard, after which he was taken directly to hospital.”

Team manager Danny Stam also passed on his thanks to the British WorldTour outfit,

“We are very grateful to the people at Team Sky and the hospital for acting so quickly and adequately,” he said.

“Richard is with us in every race throughout the year and is a very important person in the Boels-Dolmans family.”

The team added that by Wednesday, the day of Flèche Wallonne, Steege was awake and conscious and is now un the the intensive care unit at Maastricht University Medical Center. 

Stam continued: “We missed him the last few days, not only because he is so good at what he does for the team, but more importantly as a person.

“We hope that Richard will make a full recovery quickly and our thoughts were with him throughout the race on Wednesday in the Flèche Wallonne. Anna van der Breggen contributed her win to him.”

Looking ahead to today’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege, he added: “We will race with Richard on our thoughts again on Sunday.”