Junior cyclocross world champion Shirin van Unrooy (Telenet Baloise Lions) has recovered from injuries sustained in a crash just after the start of the elite women's race at last weekend's UCI Cyclocross World Cup opener in Tabor, Czech Republic, She is now back home in the Netherlands.

It has been widely reported that her injuries were the result of being cut by either her or a rival's disc brakes, but van Ambrooy is still not quite sure what happened.

"I have no idea what I hit when I fell," she told Dutch newspaper Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant on Wednesday. I got up to get back on the bike as quickly as possible, but then I saw my arm." [The skin suit was torn, the skin was completely open, and I was bleeding badly. That made me panic. 'At first I ran in the wrong direction. I thought, 'Maybe the photographers can help me. But everyone looked away. Then I ran as fast as I could in the opposite direction, toward the aid station."

"At first they didn't know what to do with me. They cut open my suit even more, which made me panic even more when I realized how deep the cuts on my forearms were. And it took a long time before they gave me painkillers."

When the ambulance arrived, she was taken to a hospital in České Budějovice, 60 km south of Tabor, where she underwent surgery.

"It's not an arm-length wound, it's a width wound," she explained. 'I was given 25 stitches and told I was lucky there were no injuries to my muscles or tendons. I haven't lost any strength in my arm or hand, but I have numbness near my wrist, and who knows yet if that will improve.

Van Anlooy's parents immediately took her to a hospital in Herentals, Belgium, where Dr. Toon Klaas, who has treated many professional riders' injuries in the past, including Wout van Art and Mathieu van der Pol, also examined her.

"In Belgium I was told that the surgery in the Czech Republic went well, but that I was given very old antibiotics. I couldn't find anything more than that on the Internet, so now I am being monitored to make sure I don't get an infection."

Van Ambrooy added that he hopes his arm heals as well as possible.

"I still have to see the rest of my life," she said, but added that she and the team at Telenet Baloise Lions decided that recovery should take time.

"It's been a very strange season because of the coronavirus. The team wants me to come back slowly and not rush," she said.