{"id":505930,"date":"2026-02-28T20:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505930\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T20:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:26:09","slug":"luckily-our-soigneurs-wife-is-a-dentist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505930\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLuckily our soigneur\u2019s wife is a dentist\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may have been the decisive moment of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad<\/a>: Rick Pluimers<\/a> hitting the cobbles as the peloton entered the Molenberg, unintentionally splitting the race wide open. The Dutchman (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) paid a painful price too, leaving the incident with damaged teeth that still needed repairing on Saturday evening. He shared his story with IDLProCycling.com.So what exactly happened on the Molenberg<\/a>? \u201cFlorian (Vermeersch, UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG) opened a small gap and I wanted to close it, but I think I just slid off the crown of the cobbles and both wheels slipped at the same time,\u201d Pluimers explained afterwards. The result was a heavy impact on the stones.<\/p>\n

Pluimers knew immediately how bad it was. \u201cI took the hit with my face, so that was pretty rubbish. I also want to say sorry to the other guys, because you know the Molenberg is an important point. Something always happens there, and it\u2019s frustrating that I influenced the race in that way\u2026 I\u2019d rather not do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the video<\/p>\n

Pluimers felt contact from Van der PoelMathieu van der Poel<\/a> was on Pluimers\u2019 wheel at the time and somehow managed to stay upright <\/a>and avoid going down. The eventual winner later apologised to Pluimers as well, saying he hadn\u2019t been able to miss him completely. Pluimers also felt that contact<\/a>. \u201cI had the idea I got a knock after I\u2019d already hit the ground. That was a scary moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first felt my teeth, and then that hit afterwards, so it wasn\u2019t pleasant,\u201d Pluimers added, referring to the moment shared online.<\/p>\n

Van der Poel stayed clear and bridged to Vermeersch. With much of the bunch delayed by the crash, only Tim van Dijke (Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe) was able to make it across, while the rest were left chasing a race that had already slipped away. \u201cLuckily nobody else went down \u2014 and it\u2019s still impressive how he stays on his bike,\u201d Pluimers said of Van der Poel.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo<\/p>\n

\"vermeersch-van-der-poel-van-dijke-69a2f956324c4\"\/<\/p>\n

Vermeersch, Van der Poel and Van Dijke rode away after Pluimers’ crash<\/p>\n

Pluimers\u2019 teeth repaired on Saturday evening<\/p>\n

For Pluimers himself it was a missed opportunity, as he felt strong in the Omloop. \u201cThe feeling was really good and I didn\u2019t feel like I\u2019d suffered yet. I think there could have been more in it, but then you have to stay on your bike,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

And medically? \u201cIt could be better \u2014 it wasn\u2019t the ideal moment to kiss the ground. A piece of my teeth has broken off and we\u2019re going to sort that first, but luckily our soigneur\u2019s wife is a dentist. She was able to make time on Saturday evening. Hopefully it\u2019s not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may have been the decisive moment of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: Rick Pluimers hitting the cobbles as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,13633,183263,201618,82,127753],"class_list":{"0":"post-505930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","12":"tag-omloop-het-nieuwsblad","13":"tag-rick-pluimers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tudor-pro-cycling-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}