25 jaar geleden: Cees Priem rijdt Scott Sunderland omver

In de Amstel Gold Race van 1998 werd Scott Sunderland aangereden door de auto van zijn vroegere ploegleider Cees Priem. De Aussie – lid van een kopgroep – smakt tegen het asfalt en wordt ternauwernood gemist door twee andere ploegleidersauto’s. Huiveringwekkend.

Zelf kan Sunderland zich amper iets van dat moment en de uren daarna heugen. „Wat ik weet, is dat ik in de helikopter lag en iemand met een helm zich over mij heen boog. En dat mijn vrouw bij me was in het ziekenhuis in Maastricht. Daar wilden ze me nog dezelfde dag naar huis sturen. Ik had een hersenschudding, zeiden ze. Maar mijn vrouw Sabine (een Vlaamse, red.) vertrouwde het niet. Ze eiste dat ik daar kon overnachten. Toen de volgende ochtend mijn toestand was verslechterd, stond zij er op dat ik naar het UZ in Gent werd gebracht. Dat gebeurde ook,” zo vertelde hij op 15 april 2016 aan Frank Buschmann van De Limburger. Die gaat als volgt verder: “Elke keer als Scott Sunderland de Scheldebrug bij Gent over rijdt, lopen de rillingen over zijn rug. Dan herleeft hij telkens weer de herinnering aan het gebonk in z’n hoofd, de helse pijn van die 25ste april 1998, toen hij in de ziekenauto lag die over de betonplaten van de brug trilde. Toek-toek, toek-toek, toek-toek. „Nu nog krijg ik kippenvel als ik op dat punt kom.”

De overbrenging naar Gent blijkt zijn redding. „Ik had een enorme buil op mijn achterhoofd. In tegenstelling tot in Maastricht, waar ze alleen foto’s hadden gemaakt van mijn hoofd, maakten ze in Gent onmiddellijk een scan. Daaruit bleek dat mijn hersenen door de klap naar voren waren gedrukt, waardoor er op mijn ogen een enorme druk ontstond. Er zaten bloedproppen tussen de schedel en huid boven mijn ogen. Ik moest meteen geopereerd worden.”

Jaren levert hij een juridisch gevecht tegen Cees Priem en TVM. De oud-ploegleider wordt in 2001 door een Belgische rechter schuldig bevonden aan de aanrijding en veroordeeld tot een geldboete. Opvallend: in de tussentijd maakt Sunderland, ondanks dat hij voor 21 procent invalide is verklaard, een comeback in het peloton. Zijn gezichtsvermogen is verminderd, met z’n rug is het nooit meer helemaal goed gekomen. Hij heeft vaak hoofdpijn en voelt zich eerder moe dan vóór het ongeval.

Op 11 mei 1998 heb ik het erover in een brief aan mijn Australische pennevriend Clyde Dearing: “Thank you very much for your kind letter and for sending me a copy of the cycling magazine. I find this so interesting that it really satisfies me for the tape I have sent you. Anyway, I’m not in it for the money. The only thing that worries me is the postal cost, because there is a rather curious arrangement for Australia that I don’t seem to grasp entirely. Therefore I would like to ask you if there is any possibility that I could send you tapes and that you pay the charges on reception.

In your letter I was particularly struck by the mentioning of Scott Sunderland, because a few weeks later he was badly injured by his former team leader Cees Priem who didn’t even look after him. This was clearly a case of “hit and run” for which Priem was fined 5.000 Belgian francs. Just to indicate how low this fine is: he was also fined 25.000 Belgian francs because Nicolay Bo Larsen didn’t wear a regular jersey in the Frankfurt race!

Moreover, I’m not a great friend of mr.Priem because of an incident I was involved in myself, somewhat ten years ago. It was in the opening Belgian classic Ghent-Ghent and it was the first time that Priem acted as a “directeur sportif”. Probably this accounts for his nervousness. I myself followed for the first time as a journalist in my own car (I had followed the same race the previous year in a car with a driver lent to me by the organisation) and we had no radio contact in the car. Therefore I didn’t know that it was about time for the handing over of the food, a period that cars of journalists are supposed to leave the trail. It took my friend José De Cauwer (at that time “directeur sportif” of A.D.R.) to calm things down.

I also found it interesting to read about your “adventures” in Geraardsbergen. Me too, I have a reminiscence of this new way to approach the “Wall”. When I was riding this steep street with my kids, my son was hit by a careless driver (for once it was not mister Priem!). He wasn’t even hurt, so it didn’t matter very much, but I was very offended to see that the driver (who didn’t know that I was accompanying my kids) tried to blame my son for hitting his car, while it was he who had opened his door without even looking! Needless to say that our climb of the Wall was greatly disturbed and both my eldest son and I couldn’t reach the top without leaving our bicycle. My youngest son however, made it and it encouraged him to try it as a “real” cyclist but an unfortunate incident ended his “career” very quickly. But I’ll tell you all about it later. Like a good story, you have to stop at a “cliffhanger”…

Op 28 juni 1998 kom ik erop terug: “I’m sorry that it took so long to answer your letter, but I have been confronted with some bad news, it took quite some time to recover. If I ever can…

I’ve told you already that I have two sons. Perhaps I mentioned that the eldest is living for about half a year in Tenerife. So of course, I’ve lost every physical contact with him. Letter writing and phoning is all quite well, but it doesn’t replace “the real thing” in the least.

Until now, I was happy that I was still frequently visited by my youngest son, who – as I have told you before – is a lover of cycling even more than I am. I was just about to tell you how his “career” as a cyclist ended quite soon after a fall which damaged his right knee more heavily than he had expected at first. In the meantime his left knee was ruined too, by trying to push it over the limit. Now he can “boast” that he had his knee examined by the same doctor as Johan Museeuw did, but I think he’d rather have it the other way.

Recently however, disaster struck again, as my youngest also announced that he was going to live in Tenerife, too. Now I’ve lost both of them and I must say that my passion for cycling is – at least for a while – suffering from it. Which is quite understandable, as it was the strongest link between the three of us.

I hope my kids will be well off (they’re in the restaurant business) and I hope the same for you and your family and even for poor old Scott Sunderland for that matters, but I hope you will excuse me that for some time I’ll stop writing about cycling or about anything else really. I feel rather depressed.”

Ronny De Schepper

(*) Van de voorbije Ronde van Vlaanderen van start tot aankomst.