Amgen Women’s Race: Moolman-Pasio third overall after vertebral compression injury
19 May 2019 09:48
Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (CCC-Liv) had targeted the Ardennes classics and the mountainous Tour of California Women’s Race – but a crash in the final sprint at Amstel Gold Race forced a change in priorities upon her. “I crashed hard in the sprint for eighth. I launched my sprint and got switched, so I went from full speed to nothing and hit my back hard. I tried not to make much of it because Flèche Wallonne was two days away and that was my goal. It started to materialise that it was more serious than what I wanted to accept, to be honest,” she told Cyclingnews. Flèche Wallonne is always a big goal for Moolman-Pasio, and after a second place in 2018 she was eager to line up and race. She finished seventh. Four days later she had to abandon Liège-Bastogne-Liège and finally went for a check-up of her injury.ADVERTISEMENT “Two weeks ago, I had an MRI scan,” she explains. “The doctor said it would be three weeks off the bike because I had compression of the L4 and L5 vertebrae. They were worried the compressed disc could become herniated. I thought my whole season was gone. There was trauma in the area, haematoma, tight muscles, and a bruised sacrum. “I had some hard talks and got advice from the team doctor and my coach. The sports doctors have a less conservative approach, to take one week off and then see how the back responded. I took that week off, then I started training again. It was important to focus on massage work and stretching to try to help the back.” To recover from injury while simultaneously adjusting to the time difference from Europe, Moolman-Pasio went to Boulder, Colorado where she eased back into training.
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