Watch the Moment Lars Van der Haar Fixes His Dislocated Shoulder... with His Own Bike
We know cyclists are tough and capable of withstanding a lot of pain to get to their goal, but using your own bike to POP BACK IN YOUR SHOULDER mid-race? That is some next level pain tolerance, and Lars Van der Haar earned the Toughest Competitor award when he did exactly that this weekend at Superprestige Niel after a crash on the muddy course.
You can watch it unfold in this clip captured by Twitter user (sorry, X user) Kieran Wood here:
Lars van der Haar is an animal! Just casually popping his shoulder back in like it's nothing👀#Superprestige #SPNiel pic.twitter.com/4ID2rzCAkx
— Kieran Wood (@kwoodzie14) November 11, 2023
In the video, you can hear the announcers trying to figure out what’s happening, and their shock, awe and teensy bit of disgust as they realize what he’s doing with his bike. It’s like watching a weird action/horror movie, but with more spandex.
Naturally, many comments compared cyclists’ willingness to get through any injury to get to the finish line compared to soccer players’ tendencies towards feigning or exaggerating injuries during play.
Van der Haar initially was leading the race before sliding out in the mud, relocating his shoulder, and eventually pulling out of the race, and Eli Iserbyt took the win. (You can catch up on all the Superprestige action on GCN+ if you suddenly find yourself riding indoors more as temperatures drop and are looking for races to stream!)
He clearly wasn't in too much distress after the race: He came back on Sunday to take second place in the World Cup in Dendermonde.
He also stacked up over 8000+ likes on a Reddit forum titled “Next F-ing Level” for this move. (Top comment: “This clip is from yesterday. my man just finished second place in a world cup cyclocross race again today. that shoulder he popped back in place is the one he has to carry the bike on to run in sections that are too muddy or difficult to ride. today’s course had heavy mud and lots of running. these guys are absolutely metal as f***.”)
Normally, we’re not big fans of riding through the pain—see our recent post about Stephen Kung being allowed to compete despite what was obviously a serious head injury—but this situation? We’ll allow it.
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