“He has lost blood, but luckily his life is not in danger.
"After having contacted, by telephone, the wife of Joop Zoetemelk, Bernard Thevenet was reassuring, in a statement to AFP, on the state of health of the Dutch overturned, this Sunday morning, by a car on a small road in the Paris region while he was out by bike.
Aged 73, the 1985 World Champion suffers from multiple fractures to both legs and one arm.
He was immediately transferred to the Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil (Val-de-Marne).
Zoetemelk had a crash this morning and has been transported by helicopter to a hospital in Paris ... Later more ... # tdf2020 https://t.co/0Ecq9TeLju
- Tour de France 2020 (@ TourdeFrance21) September 20, 2020
Forty years ago, Joop Zoetemelk became the second Dutchman to win the Tour de France, after Jan Janssen in 1968. While the 2020 edition finds its conclusion, this Sunday, with the very probable coronation of Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, we had met Zoetemelk at his home, in Seine-et-Marne, before leaving Nice three weeks ago.
Established in Germigny-l'Evêque for several decades, he has developed the habit of traveling the secondary roads around his home, in the north of the department.
