Dylan Groenewegen has received serious death threats after he caused a serious crash in the Tour of Poland in early August in which Fabio Jakobsen was seriously injured. The Jumbo-Visma rider had police at his door for weeks.
“There were such concrete and serious threats that we called the police a few days after the crash,” says 27-year-old Groenewegen in an interview with the magazine. Heroes.
“The following days and weeks the police guarded our door. We could not spontaneously leave the door anymore. If I wanted to go outside, there was a policeman by my side so that nothing could happen.”
The much-discussed crash took place in the first stage of the Tour of Poland. Groenewegen deviated from his line in the bunch sprint, as a result of which fellow countryman Jakobsen flew into the crush barriers and suffered serious injuries. He was kept in a coma, but survived the accident and is now slowly working towards his return.
“What sick world do we live in?”
Immediately after the accident, Groenewegen received severe criticism. Sports director Patrick Lefevere of Deceuninck-Quick-Step – Jakobsen’s team – even called out that the Amsterdammer had to go to jail, although the Belgian took it back later. Not only in the cycling world did Groenewegen suffer.
“We received handwritten letters in the mail, which even had a noose attached to which we could hang our little child later,” he says. “When you read that message and see that piece of rope, it frightens you enormously. That was the deciding factor for me that it couldn’t continue like this. We then went to the police.”
Groenewegen was obviously hit hard by the threats. “What happened here? How is this possible? In which sick world do we live? The most crazy things haunt your mind. Getting out of bed in the morning was quite a challenge at the time.”
The international cycling union UCI suspended Groenewegen retroactively for nine months in November. Jumbo-Visma announced last week that the sprinter, who is not allowed to take action until May 7, as much as possible in the lee return will make.
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