“The helmet saved my life”

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Another competition in which everything is subordinated to sport: on July 9, triathlete Jan van Berkel (37) will ride in his last Ironman. “I don’t want to do a lap of honor, I want to stop with a final sprint,” he announced. But now this: Van Berkel’s project almost went up in smoke and mirrors! “I’m glad I’m alive. The helmet saved me.”

What happened? Van Berkel is on the road with his racing bike on Thursday in the Val Mara in the Italian-Swiss border area. Everything goes well in the morning. But a few hours later, in his second round, everything is different. The father of two children experiences the shock of his life. His disc brakes failed on a 20 percent gradient descent. “I had to choose between guardrail and rock wall. I chose the rock wall.”

Air in the braking system as the cause

The man from Zurich decides to use the wheel and frame as a crumple zone, lowers his head and slams into the wall. “Most of the energy went into the carbon and my helmet. Because I wore this, I feel good today.” His bike is a total loss and he escapes with minor bruises and abrasions. Van Berkel has an X-ray of his shoulder made just to be sure.

His farewell race in Thun is therefore not in danger. The question remains: how could it happen that the brakes failed? “In the morning they had some air in the system, but they worked. More air must have come in in the afternoon and the braking power was no longer sufficient, even though I pumped the brake levers along the way.” Material defects, breakdown and a lack of control – probably it was a combination of all the factors that led to the accident led, according to van Berkel.

Source : Blick