Kris Boeckmans
Kris Boeckmans (born 13 February 1987) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2010 and 2020, for the , , and teams. Career. Born in Malle, Boeckmans began competing as a professional in the second half of the 2009 season, competing for the team as a stagiaire. He joined for the start of the 2010 season, remaining with the team until the end of 2011, when he joined the squad for the 2012 season. Boeckmans made his Grand Tour début at the 2012 Tour de France, where he was earmarked as one of the squad 's main sprint contenders, along with Kenny van Hummel; Boeckmans took his first top ten placing on stage 4, when he finished eighth on the stage. After two years with , Boeckemans left the team at the end of the 2013 season, to join . He started the 2015 Vuelta a España. However, on the eighth stage, he was involved in a large crash: he was drinking from a bidon and hit a hole in the road, falling hard to the ground. According to "Cyclingnews.com", he suffered "facial trauma and fractures, a concussion, broken ribs and a punctured lung" and was placed  into an induced coma. He was kept in the coma for over a week and was eventually discharged around four weeks after the crash, following major facial surgery in Belgium.