When Liegenne Marx, Annemiek van Fruten, and Ellen van Dijk left the starting gate in the team time trial mixed relay at the UCI Road World Championships, the Dutch were already on the back foot.

Things went downhill fast for the potential race winners. No sooner had the girls jumped out of the gate to make up the time lost due to Morema's mechanical problems than van Vleuten, who was in second place, lost control and his bike slammed into the barriers, sending him crashing hard to the ground.

Van Dijk, the time trial world champion, was lucky not to crash, as she was right behind Van Vleuten. She rode on top of van Vleuten's bike.

"At that moment I thought I was going to crash too, but somehow I got over something and was still ok," van Dijk explained after the time trial.

"I thought I had to stop, but it actually took me a couple of seconds to realize that we still had to finish together.

Markus waited for Van Dijk and the two quickly refocused. Annemiek slowly got up and wrapped herself up in a blanket, facing an even worse day than Sunday, when she was clearly disappointed that she could not finish higher than 7th in the individual time trial.

After a couple of slow turns, van Dijk and Markus quickly tried to focus on the task at hand: half of the 28.2 km race. The men's and women's relays were down to two men and two women, but they finished in fifth place.

"It's no secret that I'm really disappointed at this point because I was a strong contender for a medal today.

"When you have bad luck like this, it's hard to say anything. It was a really bad day," he said. And there are other problems besides the mixed relay.

The extent of the injury is still unknown, but van Vleuten has a habit of falling short of expectations and bouncing back when all seems lost. For example, at the 2020 Road World Championships, she raced just eight days after breaking her wrist and finished second.

"She certainly won't be too happy," said van Dijk, her roommate in Australia. 'But if anyone can bounce back, it's Anne-Mike. But even in the worst-case scenario of her not being able to compete, there is no hope for the Dutch team, which, in addition to Van Dijk and Markus, has a full complement of potential winners, including Marianne Voss, Demi Volering, Florche McKay, and Shirin van Anlooy.

"We have plenty of options ...... Don't worry," van Dijk said.