The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon.
Stage 4 of the Eneco Tour was supposed to be a quiet one for the riders, but unfortunately things took an undesired turn for seven-time Monument winner Tom Boonen, who went down in the second hour of racing and landed on his head, after hitting a pothole as he was trying to get food from his pocket.
Right after the incident, reminiscent of the one in the 2015 Abu Dhabi Tour, where Tom crashed and hit his head, suffering a left temporal bone fracture, the 35-year-old was attended by Etixx – Quick-Step's doctor, who decided that the best thing for Tom – who had a few abrasions on his body – was to abandon the race as precautionary measure and go by ambulance to the nearest hospital, so that his condition gets evaluated.
Fortunately, the cervical X-ray he underwent at the St. Vincentius Hospital in Deinze didn't reveal any injury, so Tom – winner of three races this season – was cleared by the doctors to go home, where he is to rest until the end of the week, before returning to training.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele
