Track bike - Splinter through thigh: German cycling talent injured

The young German professional cyclist Moritz Mauss has spoken out after his serious crash in a track cycling race in Belgium. The 18-year-old suffered a serious injury during an event with the national team in Ghent. "When I fell, I slid across the track and a 50 cm long piece of wood split off the track (...) and went straight into my hip and left thigh," he wrote on the Instagram platform.

He was then taken straight to hospital and operated on two hours after the accident. Everything went smoothly and he is back home again, he announced. The incident in the Madison discipline, in which two professionals form a team, occurred on Sunday.

Mauss: "I was really lucky"

"I was really lucky because the splinter missed my nerves and most of my leg muscles," he wrote. It could have been much worse. "Just a few centimetres could have meant a career-ending injury," he added.

Mauss has often been successful on the track, winning silver twice at the World Championships in Apeldoorn last year. However, the Düsseldorf native also competes in road races. Last year, he finished ninth in the junior road race at the World Cycling Championships in Rwanda. This year, the young rider finished third in the "Istrian Spring Tour" in Croatia.

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