Kurt Hovelijnck of Quick Step is back in the arms of the peloton, following a terrible crash during a training ride last year. He was at the Quick Step presentation yesterday, all smiles.
Team Manager Patrick Lefevere was quite astonished. "A miracle. The win of the season," he said to SportWereld, as Hovelijnck was presented in the XPo of Kortrijk.
Hovelijnck was out training with teammate Wouter Weylandt on March 17, when he crashed heavily on some cobbles. With sever head injuries, he was between life and death for weeks. "Since about a month he is race ready," Lefevere added. "I hoped that he would get back to normal, but there was a possibility it would be all over for him."
Hovelijnck recovered slowly, visiting his peers in June. "At the Belgian Nationals, he came to greet the peloton. Then he was unable to walk even a kilometer." Now Hovelijnck is back and brings the tally of riders for the team up to 30. "This is the biggest victory in 2009," Lefevere said.