Ronde turns pink for Lara (2) who is fighting leukemia, video shows how she herself reacts to all the support: “Thank you!” Instagram HLN

Lara is currently undergoing treatment at UZ Gent, where her parents Pieter Demeulemeester and Nele De Medts were of course also with her on Sunday. For her (grand)nieces Sarah, Marieke and Ine, the Ronde was an excellent moment to show their support and ask Flanders to do the same.

“The news that the youngest of the gang is battling leukemia is unreal,” it sounds. “Since Lara’s dad Pieter is an avid racing fan, we came up with the idea of ​​doing something in a cousin’s meadow in Kalkovenstraat in Kwaremont, along the course. And so the idea was born to display pink balloons of hope for Lara, hoping they would be picked up by the cameras.”

And that call was heard. Flanders almost literally drew a pink ribbon along the course, where, next to balloons, even Lara’s name appeared large in a meadow. “We are very pleasantly surprised by the great response,” Marieke responds. “Even riders like Mathieu Van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Greg Van Avermaet, like many others, supported our action on their Instagram account. They also had words of courage and hope for Pieter and Nele. They in turn already let us know that they followed the images with a lot of emotion.”

“We are very impressed with all the support”, respond Pieter and Nele from the hospital, where they could follow everything via a Whatsapp group. “We are very emotional, but this also gives us a lot of courage. We don’t know how to thank everyone…”

“There were pink balloons or other pink signs of compassion everywhere,” Marieke nods enthusiastically. “Between the despair and fear of what will suddenly happen to their child, this is a great boost for Nele and Pieter. Of course it doesn’t change the case itself, but all this compassion is very encouraging.”

“Lara herself doesn’t really know what’s going on,” Marieke continues. “But our little princess, as the nurses now call her, today counts everything that is pink on the screen. She is also responding well to the treatment for the time being, although the doctors do not yet know how it will evolve. But she dances across the room, with a huge thank you to everyone who helped with the action.”

And there were indeed many. At the Oude Kwaremont, for example, there was even someone completely dressed in pink. “Every year we come to see the Ronde with friends and family,” says Dimitri Caby from Hainaut. “I wanted to follow the call for Lara and so I dressed up specially. Of course I don’t solve the problem with that, but that way Lara’s parents and family know that they are not alone. We also brought pink balloons with our group. In fact, this has simply become more important than the race itself — my favorite Sep Vanmarcke isn’t riding either, by the way.”

“We have heard that there is a promotion for that girl”, also say some French cycling enthusiasts, who were only too happy to release a pink balloon. “It doesn’t matter what nationality someone has. That’s the beauty of cycling: everyone suffers in the same way on a bicycle. And we like to support people who are having a hard time.”