Simon Dalby (Uno-X Mobility) will race the 2026 Brabantse Pijl on April 17, his first competition start since two brain blood clots forced his hospitalisation in October 2025.
Team sports director Christian Andersen confirmed to Feltet.dk that medical staff have cleared the 23-year-old Danish rider to return following a six-month recovery process that included specialist care and a gradual return to structured training.
The incident occurred in late October while Dalby was eating with his parents. "From one second to the next, something just wasn’t right," Dalby said, "I became very dizzy and partially paralysed on my right side, and I could immediately feel that something was wrong."
In a team statement, team doctor Rory Nolan described the severity of the situation. "This was a case of very bad luck in an otherwise extremely healthy young athlete." he said.
Dalby spent four days in hospital before continuing recovery under specialist supervision at Regionshospitalet Gødstrup. In a statement on Facebook, the team said, "Thanks to the quick response of his parents and the excellent care at Regionshospitalet Gødstrup, he is now experiencing only mild symptoms and is undergoing specialist rehabilitation."
Identifying the cause
In December 2025, doctors identified the likely explanation for the clots: a small congenital opening between the heart's chambers known as a patent foramen ovale, or PFO. Nolan stressed that this condition is far more common than it is dangerous. "This is a very common condition. Between 20 and 25 percent of people have it, and for the vast majority it never causes any problems at all," he said.
In rare cases, however, a blood clot can pass through the opening and reach the brain, which appears to be what happened with Dalby. The identification of the likely cause allowed doctors to address the underlying condition and gave both Dalby and the team confidence in planning his return. "Everything now looks exactly as it should," Nolan said.
By mid-December, Uno-X Mobility reported that Dalby had resumed structured training. "Right now the focus is just on building things back up step by step and enjoying being back on the bike," Dalby said at the time. "I'm motivated to move forward."
"It could have been much worse," Dalby said. "The fact that it happened at home, with my parents there, made a big difference."
The comeback
Brabantse Pijl represents a significant milestone in his recovery. The Belgian one-day semi classic falls in a nice place in the calendar for Dalby which allows him to have a demanding racing window that Dalby will rejoin alongside his teammates.
The 23-year-old has been part of the Uno-X system since 2022, progressing through the development squad before stepping up to the ProTour team in 2025. He had already shown promise as a climber, with a sixth-place finish at the 2024 Tour de l'Avenir and a stage win at the Course de la Paix Grand Prix Jeseníky in 2025, before the October health scare halted his momentum.
His entry into Brabantse Pijl marks his return to competition. Six months after the health scare, Dalby is back on the start line. Brabantse Pijl is an extremely difficult race to manage, though. Cobbled climbs and, often, grizzly conditions makes it a key transfer from the cobbled Classics into the Ardennes Classics which begin on Sunday 19th with Amstel Gold Race. The race is just 162.3km long, but does feature 21 classified climbs with cobbled ascents such as the Hertstraat and the Moskesstraat.
Cover image - Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com
