Maghalie Rochette is Doing Okay After Weird Gavere Start Incident
The Canadian champ suffered a sprained ankle after a weird start-line crash, but as she explains, it could have been a lot worse.
On both Saturday at Scheldecross and Sunday at Gavere, the races did not get off to a good start for the North American women. On Saturday, Maghalie Rochette missed her pedal, and then a few seconds later, a rider pinballed into Clara Honsinger and Rebecca Fahringer.
Sunday at Gavere, Rochette again had troubles that were so bizarre, you’d swear she was wearing Honsinger’s #13.
In real-time, it appeared Rochette missed her pedal again—it happens to the best of us—a bummer but not the biggest of deals, but then when the holeshot cleared, the camera panned back to Rochette laying on the tarmac in obvious pain. We are big Maghalie Rochette fans here at the Bulletin, so it was hard to see the Canadian and Pan-Am Champ having to leave a race in that fashion, and we held our collective breaths wondering if she’d be okay.
Two things that have always been true about Rochette are a. She is a really good writer and b. She’s a consummate pro, and as such, Rochette described what happened in her newsletter.
Rochette confirmed she did miss her pedal and then somehow, and this is where the weirdness comes in, she got her foot stuck in the spokes of her wheel.
I didn't clip in instantly. I kept pedalling, but my foot slipped and got stuck, sideways, in my wheel and it cracked my ankle. It was weird. It hurt really bad so I came to a stop (luckily, I didn't cause a crash, but my colleagues said I screamed loudly). I was just standing there and the race was gone.
Navigating life in the Dutch language is hard enough, but navigating the Dutch language at a hospital when your ankle might be broken is next-level difficult. Fortunately, Rochette got some assistance from a helpful fan.
According to Rochette, the wheel was broken, but her ankle was likely just sprained. And maybe just a bit swollen.
In her post, Rochette said she is hoping to race this weekend at Namur, if it’s possible.
So now, all I need to do is to recover. So my next week will involve a lot of ice, Advils, compression legs, feet up, and hopefully some pedaling really soon. My goal is to be back for Namur as it is my favorite race, but I will also be honest with myself to make sure I come back when I'm really ready.
And in addition to being a consummate pro and an effective communicator, Rochette is also an optimist and a person and athlete capable of rolling with the punches.
My morale is good. It could have been way worse. I have no open wound, no broken bones...it's really the best-case scenario. I almost feel silly that I didn't do the race because of a sprained ankle. That sounds so ridiculous...but it really did hurt. There might even be a silver lining to this episode; missing the race today really sucked, and I think it will make me appreciate my next opportunities to race even more.
We here at the Bulletin wish Rochette a speedy recovery and hope we get to see her back between the tape in due time.