[VdB]

Drama on the day of the Belgian championship: apparently Bart Wellens has been admitted to the hospital IC unit following an acute infection of the heart. He had started suffered suffering from the onset of a regular flu and fever yesterday afternoon, but as the fever kept rising he was brought to the local hospital, which transported him to the general hospital in Antwerp a little later. Apparently the infection had affected his heart, leading to multiple organ failure and Wellens having to fight for his life. After an uneasy night, his situation appears to have stabilized and Wellens has regained consciousness.

There is no telling what this will do to the long-term plans as a professional sportsman for the 33-year old (I suppose it'll have to depend on how critical the damage was) but it's more than clear that his season is over. All the best to Bart and his family.

[Burkni]

Really sad about his season, even if nothing can be said about the remainder of his career just yet.
Small consolation that he was able to take a nice win the other day.

[VdB]

Yeah...I'm just glad a tragedy was avoided. On a positive note, the to some people suspicious timing (right before a big race) that raised some questions has been summarily dismissed by the hospital, saying that there is no indication whatsoever that the condition was caused by any suspicious factors. That's a good thing to hear. While I think that cyclocross is fairly clean these days, you can never be too naive about these things.

[VdB]

It may be good to say that Wellens has been questioned in a doping investigation following his health problems. Not sure whether the investigation was already set up to include him before his problems or if they only decided to question him because of it, though. He's made some statements and delivered a hair sample on Friday, but he seemed very cheerful and happy with the investigation. Not the cliché image of the pokerfaced rider saying 'tranquillo' we've seen so often before.

Of course that may not mean much, since Wellens is generally a cheerful guy. To be continued?