The famous Russian racer Daria Shmelyova is waiting for a long rehabilitation after falling from a bicycle at the fourth stage of the World Cup in cycling track, held in Cambridge, New Zealand. The incident occurred when an athlete performed in keirin - one of the varieties of the cycle track, in which six participants at a high speed fight for medals.

In this discipline, Shmelyova won bronze medals at the World and European Championships in 2019. In New Zealand, the Russian woman won the first round and started the second as a favorite.

According to her personal trainer Vladimir Kiriltsev, Shmeleva was diagnosed with a fracture of six ribs and a lung injury.

“Now Dasha is in the hospital, she will have to stay here because she cannot be transported yet. Of course, she won’t perform before the end of the year, ”a RIA Novosti expert said.

Despite the apparent severity of the damage, the recovery process of Shmeleva will take about three to four weeks. Theoretically, the racer can have time to return to the track for the World Cup, which will be held in Berlin from February 26 to March 1. The victim will spend the next time in a hospital where New Zealand doctors will continue to monitor her condition. However, it will be difficult for her to achieve optimal conditions, admitted Vyacheslav Yekimov, President of the Russian Cycling Federation (FVSR).

“With regard to the timing of recovery, this is not the kind of injury when we say that the athlete retired for six months, the recovery should go quickly, tentatively, three to four weeks. The process of training in cycling is continuous, if you miss a week, then this is already felt. I think that there is not much time before the World Cup to prepare again, ”Ekimov told TASS.

The incident occurred on the final day of the competition. And she began the World Cup stage with bronze in the team sprint along with Ekaterina Rogova. In personal races in this discipline, the titled athlete was less fortunate. She lost to Australian Stephanie Morton. But another Russian woman Anastasia Voinova celebrated a victory here.

It is with the ill-fated keirin that Shmeleva traditionally has the most difficult relationship in cycling. So, at the European Games - 2019 in Minsk, a Russian woman called this discipline the most interesting for herself, but also the most difficult.

“You go to the start with five more girls, and then someone will outwit whom. Someone is stronger than you, someone is more cunning than you ... It is held on the last day, some still do not have medals, and they are ready for anything to win them. There is a moment of fear, because if you fall, you may no longer get up. So far, all the time I have second and third places. Something is missing all the time. The moon, one might say, rises at the wrong angle. But this is such a discipline in which there is always something to work on, ”she said.

The likely absence of a 25-year-old Muscovite at the upcoming World Cup risks seriously weakening the Russian team. Shmeleva is one of the strongest and titled racers of the country. In addition to the silver Olympic medal, she has four victories at world championships of different years and nine gold medals at European championships. At the last continental championship in Apeldoorn, Shmeleva gathered a collection of a full set of awards in various types of programs. Moreover, the Russian woman competed against the backdrop of a barely suffered illness, during which she did not slow down the training volumes.

Shmeleva is also one of the main hopes of the Russian Olympic team at the Games in Tokyo. But they still have six months left, for which the athlete can manage to gain the necessary form.

The last tragic incident in cycling occurred in October this year. As a result of a fall at the finish of the road race at the age of 23, the Italian amateur cyclist Giovanni Yannelli was killed. About 100 meters before the finish, he fell off his bicycle and hit his head on a concrete parapet. Doctors tried to save the athlete, but he died without regaining consciousness.