Steele von Hoff fractures vertebrae hours after Commonwealth Games selection

Just hours after being named to the Cycling Australia men’s road race team for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, former WorldTour rider and two-time national criterium champion Steele von Hoff (Bennelong SwissWellness Cycling Team) suffered four vertebrae fractures following a crash at Sandown (Victoria, Australia) on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old, who is scheduled to join countrymen Mitchell Docker, Alexander Edmondson, Mathew Hayman, Cameron Meyer and Callum Scotson for the 168-kilometre event on April 9, has been on a career upswing since returning to the Australian-registered UCI Continental team formerly known as Genesys Wealth Advisers.

The former Garmin-Sharp rider (2012-2014) is fresh off a points classification win after two runner-up stage results at the Herald Sun Tour earlier this month, as well as a second-place finish to reigning three-time winner Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) at the national crit champs in January.

The Tour Down Under stage winner took to social media from the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne to announce his injuries and vow to hopefully recover in time to make the Gold Coast start.

Von Hoff posted to Instagram: “Well Tuesday was a roller coaster … from highs to lows! Took a tumble at Sandown and ended up in the @thealfredhospital with 4 cracked vertebrae. Road to recovery for @commgamesaus begins now! Let’s see if I can channel my teammate pull off a Mat Hayman! Thanks to all the staff at Alfred Hospital for the Royal Treatment!”

The Tour of Norway stage winner was referring to Hayman’s speedy recovery from a fractured radius bone in his right arm at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad race just a bit more than a month out from winning Paris-Roubaix in 2016.

Several Australian and New Zealand riders, including BMC Racing’s Rohan Dennis (AUS), Miles Scotson (AUS) and Patrick Bevin (NZL), Mitchelton-Scott’s Caleb Ewan (AUS) and Jack Bauer (NZL), Dimension Data’s Mark Renshaw (AUS) and Lachlan Morton (AUS), Lotto Soudal’s Adam Hansen (AUS) and EF Education First-Drapac’s Will Clarke (AUS), talked to Eurosport prior to the Stage 2 start at the Abu Dhabi Tour on Thursday to express their best wishes for a speedy recovery.