Michael Barry to replace Robert Gesink at the World Championships – Cycling News
Robert Gesink has fractured his right leg as he has crashed during practice and he will not be able to ride again in this season. Gesink was one of the most prominent riders at the GP Cycliste and GP Cycliste de Quebec.
The 25-year-old had an outstanding season as he finished first at the Tour of Oman and won the young rider classification during stage 4 and also secured the stage 5 individual time trials during the Tour of Oman. He finished second overall at the Tirreno-Adriatico
and won the Youth classification and the team time trials during the event. Robert finished the Canadian race Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec second and was third overall at the Tour of Basque Country.
Gesink has faced the loss of his father as he died last year in October 2010 during a cycling accident but the Dutch rider managed to gather himself and continued the 2011 season with some really good performances. He raced at the Tour de France 2011 and
was looking good but injured his hip and back during a crash at the Tour as he finished at 33rd position.
He was taken to hospital at Doetinchem and has gone through a successful surgery as Erik Breukink who is the director of team Rabobank mentioned that the rider did not remember how the crash took place. It is expected that Steve Kruijswijk will replace Robert
at the World Championships and also the Canadian rider Dominique Rollin has not fully recovered after the crash at the GP de Montreal and will be replaced by Michael Barry for the Championships.
Robert is has been dropped from the Dutch team and the cyclists to represent the Netherlands at the Championships includes Lars Boom, Bauke Mollema, Pieter Weening, Maarten Tjallingii, Wout Poels, Pim Ligthart, Niki Terpstra, Johnny Hoogerland and Michael
Barry who will replace Robert Gesink at the World Championships.
Gesink is currently at the 15th position in the UCI World Tour individual rankings with 222 points. Bauke Mollema is the leading Dutch cyclist with 184 points as he secured the 21st position. Netherlands is currently at 6th
position in the UCI World Tour Nations Ranking as of September 2011 and it will be interesting to see how the Dutch team performs at the World Championships at Copenhagen.
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