Dutch Olympic cyclist suffers horrendous crash just 6 miles away from winning a gold medal

Eric Gaillard/REUTERS

Dutch cyclist Annemiek Van Vleuten had a comfortable lead in the women's Olympic road race just six miles shy of the finish line when she suffered an awful crash on a steep, slippery descent. She went head-over-handlebars and appeared to land head first on the road's curb. 

The conditions on the road race were bad yesterday for the men's road race, which also featured an important crash among the lead group on the final descent.

But Van Vleuten's crash was worse, both because she was all alone, and because the crash itself looked far more serious.

It had started to rain during the final descent in Sunday's women's road race right as the leaders reached the start of the final descent. Van Vleuten flew down the mountain and into a comfortable lead when her back wheel gave out. 

Van Vleuten started to break going around one of several steep curves:

via NBC

But the back wheel went up into the air:

NBC

She went over her handlebars and landed head first:

NBC

Just awful:

NBC

A Dutch teammate went on to take gold, but it's heartbreaking to be that close to the finish line - and a possible gold medal - only to crash out in such tragic fashion. 

The Dutch cycling federation federation confirmed that Van Vleuten is in stable condition, despite the fact that she looked unconscious after her crash: