{"id":796015,"date":"2026-03-01T02:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T02:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/796015\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T02:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T02:41:14","slug":"rick-pluimers-heading-to-the-dentist-after-a-painful-crash-at-omloop-het-nieuwsblad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/796015\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Pluimers heading to the dentist after a painful crash at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I just slid out,&#8221; Pluimers explained to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wielerflits.nl\/nieuws\/rick-pluimers-breekt-twee-bovenste-snijtanden-bij-zijn-valpartij-op-molenberg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WielerFlits <\/a>at the finish line, with the injuries on his face clearly visible. &#8220;I wanted to follow Florian. I just came off the crown of a cobble when I felt my wheel slip. Then I hit the ground face first. That was a huge bummer. I think a lot was possible today, because I felt good. But if you crash, you can&#8217;t show that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The impact broke half of his two front teeth. A team soigneur noted that it was a very painful injury because the nerves were exposed, but Pluimers tried to stay positive. &#8220;I immediately felt that my teeth were gone,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Fortunately, it is not too bad. They probably broke in a good spot, but I still have to go to the dentist. We will see there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pluimers was well aware of the chaos his fall caused behind him. &#8220;I would have preferred to shape the race in a different way,&#8221; he admitted. &#8220;It is a shame. The Molenberg is an important moment in the race. If you crash there, you know you are holding guys up. My apologies to those guys for that. I would have rather stayed on the bike.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A team car was waiting at the finish line in Ninove to take Pluimers directly to the dentist. &#8220;We have to get the teeth fixed. That is the priority right now,&#8221; he noted. &#8220;Furthermore, my hand hurts a bit, but I think it is not too bad.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the bad luck, Pluimers has shown excellent form recently, securing two top-ten finishes in the Tour of Oman and a third place in the Classic Var. He takes some comfort in knowing his legs were ready for the big classics.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The feeling is good,&#8221; Pluimers confirmed. &#8220;That is nice, although I would have rather ridden with the front group to the finish.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;I just slid out,&#8221; Pluimers explained to WielerFlits at the finish line, with the injuries on his face&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,194134,10102,217001,231131,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-796015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-florian-vermeersch","10":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","11":"tag-omloop-het-nieuwsblad","12":"tag-rick-pluimers","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116151614382267020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}