11 broken bones and a collapsed lung — back racing again just 2.5 months later!

Timo Roosen is currently racing the Baloise Belgium Tour, and that in itself deserves a mention. The experienced Dutchman from Picnic-PostNL took a hard fall in Belgium on 22 March, sustaining no fewer than 11 (!) broken bones and a collapsed lung. He told IDL Pro Cycling how he's getting on now, two and a half months later.

Roosen's story belongs firmly in the category of "cyclists are tough." The man from Tilburg shared the bad news on social media shortly after his crash. "Well… I had a bad crash during the GP Monseré. The result: 11 broken bones and a collapsed lung. A big thank you to the AZ Delta Hospital in Roeselare for the excellent care over the past few days, in a pleasant atmosphere and with a funny dialect," he wrote, keeping his sense of humour as always.

"Time to go home, but recovery will take a while. My collarbone is back in place and the drain has been removed," the Picnic-PostNL rider (33) said after his crash on 22 March in the Belgian one-day race. "On top of that, the 6 ribs and 4 vertebral protrusions still need some time to heal and become less painful."

By mid-June, Roosen had already started four one-day races ahead of the five-day Baloise Belgium Tour. Back to 22 March — what exactly happened? "I think there must have been something in the verge. A post, or something with a sharp edge. And I went straight into it."

"When I was lying there, I thought: I might have broken my collarbone. When the doctor told me it was six ribs, and then later four vertebral protrusions on top of that, I thought: I expected it to hurt more," he said. "But I also had a lot of pain in the first two weeks after the crash."

"I was in hospital for a while, and even at home I couldn't get out of bed by myself," Roosen explained. "It was just from the chair to the bed and back. Only after a few weeks did it start to improve, and I could move around a bit again. It came back step by step."

On 6 June he made his comeback at the Heistse Pijl. "I'd done some training beforehand, so that was nice. Since then I've actually ridden quite a lot. We're a bit short on riders with all the injuries at the moment, and we're doing a big programme, so we do need to show up at races."

"I was also glad that I got a little bit more training time than I'd expected. Now I've been called in here too, because Niklas [Märkl] had crashed in Copenhagen," Roosen said, speaking from the Baloise Belgium Tour.

"The focus is now a bit on the Dutch national championships, and after that I'll just see how things go," says the 2021 national champion. "I don't know whether I'll actually rest at all, because I've already rested far too much over the past few weeks. So we'll see."

The Tour de France won't normally be on the cards for Roosen. "Not that I know of. Well, maybe if there are a lot of injuries. It would also be very soon, so that's probably not something I should be aiming for right now. I don't think it would be wise," he said realistically — a man who has ridden the Tour de France three times.