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News & Racing<\/a><\/p>\n One day, the Dutch veteran was a pro training for his next race. The next, he was a cardiac patient facing an existential challenge.<\/p>\n The next Kreder in the family business? Wesley with son Milan. Photo \u00a9 Wesley Kreder<\/p>\n Wesley Kreder, Cor Vos, Kristof Ramon<\/p>\n August 2023 is the month that everything changed for Wesley Kreder. Forever. A professional cyclist since 2013, a veteran of 14 cobbled Monuments and three Grand Tours, the month began with a crash and a broken collarbone on stage four of the Tour of Poland. That in itself wasn\u2019t disastrous \u2013 he\u2019d broken the same bone before \u2013 and he knew within a few weeks he\u2019d be race-ready again for the end of the season. It was what came next that upended everything for the Cofidis rider.<\/p>\n \u201cI was slowly building back up to return to racing [and] the rest of the time I was training at home and enjoying time with my family,\u201d the Dutchman told Escape Collective via email. But he wouldn\u2019t get to pin another race number on ever again. He almost wouldn\u2019t even see his family again. In fact, he\u2019s immensely lucky to be even telling his story today. On the night of August 29, 2023, Kreder suffered a cardiac arrest at home so severe that, as cardiologists later explained to him: \u201cWithout immediate resuscitation, hardly anyone survives.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018Cardiac stuff is scary\u2019 \u2013 A chat with Paddy Bevin about his early retirement<\/p>\n \u201cNo one wants to finish like that. It\u2019s a horrendous way to watch your career circle the drain for 18 months.\u201d<\/p>\n Kreder was only 32. His two young children \u2013 ages six and two at the time \u2013 were asleep in adjacent rooms, at first unaware that their father was clinging to his own young life. \u201cI suffered a ventricular fibrillation, a severe heart rhythm disturbance where the heart stops pumping and there\u2019s no blood circulation,\u201d he said. Thanks to the quick thinking of his wife and her family, Kreder survived to tell the tale, but the scars still linger via acquired brain injury (ABI). From one moment to the next, his life changed dramatically for evermore. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s hard to find peace in my head, and that affects my daily life with my kids, my family, and my energy,\u201d said Kreder, now 35. \u201cI\u201dm grateful to still be here, but learning to live with ABI remains a constant challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n The family business<\/p>\n Wesley Kreder was only ever going to be a professional cyclist. It\u2019s pretty much worn into his family fabric, part of his DNA. He and his two brothers (his twin Sander and Dennis, three years older) raced together as kids, while three of his cousins (Raymond, Michel and Stefan) all competed on the UCI circuit. All except Stefan, the baby of the family, were born within a few years of each other. You can imagine birthday parties growing up revolving around spontaneous bike races in the playground and fields.<\/p>\n Of the five, Wesley had the longest and most successful career, registering 746 professional race days and 11 seasons at the ProTour or WorldTour level. He started with Rabobank Continental team in 2010 and progressed to the WorldTour with Vacansoleil-DCM in 2013 after winning the Tour de Vend\u00e9e for the Dutch team as a stagiaire in the autumn of 2012. \u201cThat gave me confidence and led to my first professional contract,\u201d he reflected.<\/p>\n Wins were never frequent occurrences in Kreder\u2019s career as he settled into a helper\u2019s role from the get-go, but in 2016, riding the second year of a two-year contract with Roompot-Oranje Peloton, he took a stage of the ZLM Tour. It was another \u201cgreat moment,” as he put it, one of several in a \u201cbeautiful career\u201d that was mostly marked by six years as one of Wanty-Groupe Gobert\u2019s most trusted domestiques.<\/p>\n Kreder was predominantly a Classics specialist \u2013 one highlight was \u201cin one of my first years as a pro [2013] entering the Trou\u00e9e d\u2019Arenberg cobblestone sector first out of the peloton, riding in support of my team leader Bj\u00f6rn Leukemans at Paris-Roubaix.\u201d But he could turn his hand to most tasks in the sport, and rode and completed two editions of the Giro d\u2019Italia and one Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. The latter, in 2021, stands out as particularly memorable as little Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty-Gobert Mat\u00e9riaux led the race for seven stages with Christian Odd Eiking, who finished 11th overall.<\/p>\n This post is for paying subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CMB-mug-shot-aspect-ratio-99-99-150x150.jpeg\")
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