Paris (AFP) - Belgian cyclist Wout van Aert "might have died" after almost falling under the wheels of a cement mixer truck while on a training run, a teammate said Thursday.
The world's top-ranked one-day racer was preparing for Belgium's biggest race, the Tour of Flanders, when the truck overtook him and turned, forcing him off the road.
"Unfortunately this kind of thing happens all the time," said the 28-year-old Jumbo-Visma rider, one of the favourites for Sunday's race.
"I had lots of messages as the word got out.My wife thought I'd been knocked over.But I'm okay, still alive," he said.
The incident took place over the border in the Netherlands when Van Aert had left a parallel cycling path which he says would have been too dangerous to ride on at the speed he was moving, somewhere near 45-50 km/h.
Van Aert's training partner described the scene as frightening.
"I heard some loud horn beeping from the truck which then passed in front of him and then then tail end swung out," said Jan Bakelants
"Wout was almost underneath the truck, it was shocking."
Van Aert swung out to the right to avoid the truck and knocked another training partner Dan Soete into a ditch.
"Otherwise he might have died," said Bakelants.
In November, Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin was knocked over and killed by a truck.
In 2017, another Italian champion, Michele Scarponi, also died after being hit by a van whose driver was watching a video on his smartphone.
Last year, former Tour de France champion Egan Bernal said he had been lucky after hitting a bus at high-speed while training in his native Colombia.
