The 26-year-old Vader was just under 100 kilometers before the finish in the peloton that was chasing a leading group. Things went wrong in one of the descents in the north of Spain. He went down and fell down next to the road. Robert Kempers, the doctor of Jumbo-Visma, is with him in Bilbao.
Milan Vader’s parents left for Spain on a spur of the moment to be with him as soon as possible. Patrick Vader, known as director of SportZeeland, reported in the evenings that stents were immediately placed in Milan’s carotid arteries because they were narrowed. He also has broken vertebrae, a broken collarbone and a broken shoulder blade.
The cyclist was kept under anesthesia, with the maintenance of good brain functions (because of those carotid arteries) as the first priority. Where the situation was critical earlier, Jumbo-Visma reported later in the evening that Vader is in stable condition.
The Olympian – he finished tenth in Tokyo in mountain biking – has only just become a road cyclist. Vader had an excellent first few months and was in the Tour of the Basque Country accompanying classification leader Primoz Roglic and the Dane Jonas Vingegaard. He himself was 32nd after four stages.