Belgian junior Seff Van Kerckhove will miss the Montréal World Championships after suffering spinal fractures in a collision with a car during training on Sunday, September 20.
The 18-year-old, who won bronze in last year’s junior world time trial as a first-year junior, suffered fractures to vertebrae in his spine. He was coming into the races in Canada as one of Belgium’s leading medal hopes after becoming the first rider ever to win the Giro della Lunigiana in successive years.
His brother, Matisse Van Kerckhove, told Het Laatste Nieuws that a car had crossed Seff’s path while he was riding his time-trial bike.
“From what I understood, a car suddenly crossed the road, probably to enter its driveway,” he said. “The driver of the car had not seen Seff approaching and, because Seff was at that moment in the time-trial position on his extensions, he could not brake in time and hit the car head-on.”
His brother had ridden with him earlier in the training session but was elsewhere when the collision occurred. DirectVelo reported that Van Kerckhove needed help to stand before being taken to hospital. Belgian Cycling initially described upper-body injuries before reports of spinal fractures emerged.
Second serious training collision in nine months
This was Van Kerckhove’s second serious training collision in nine months. He was also hit by a car while training in Belgium on December 29, 2025. He fractured four vertebrae in that incident.
That crash pushed back his 2026 season start until April with the Grand Prix de Vougy. But he went on to win nine races, including the Classique des Alpes and the Giro della Lunigiana.
At the Classique des Alpes on June 6, he attacked on the Mont du Chat and rode alone to victory, finishing 1 minute 29 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.
His September victory at the Giro della Lunigiana made him the first rider to win the overall title twice in the race’s 50 editions, despite the opening stage being cancelled because of bad weather and stage two being abandoned following a landslide.
Van Kerckhove’s world time-trial bronze in Kigali came during his first junior season. He finished eight seconds behind the winner over the 22.6km course.
This year’s junior world time trial takes place on Tuesday, September 22, over 20.2km. The 134km junior road race follows on Thursday, September 24.
