Gesink Discussion Thread

[Beech Mtn]

Thanks Arnout, much appreciated. The heart operation sounds a bit worrying, but hopefully all goes well for him and he can regain full health.

 

[Arnout]

^^ They have to erase a bad spot on or near his heart, it's not an extraordinary operation apparently.

I won't downplay the troubles, but it seems it was a bit overreported earlier today. There is no clear correlation between results and problems too, he achieved his best placings after the initial problems. (I think his lacklustre results in the last couple of years are clinic related, but that's another discussion).

 

[Kokoso]

Well, your idea of simple and mine may differ, but feel free to argue the point with my brother's medical team.

Panic attacks cause sinus tachykardy, what is normal rhythm only fast. When you are riding your bike, you have sinus tachycardy. And that is not something what is treated by implanting pacemaker.

 

[Kokoso]

I didn't watch the press conference, but according to most post-press conference reports he had heart issues since 2008 (Brabantse Pijl). They were infrequent, but naturally scared him more and more every time. Last year in the Giro in the TT he had these issues coupled with hyperventilation and abandoned. He had checks in hospitals multiple times throughout the years, but they were never able to fix the issues and last week during Pays Vasco he had arrhythmia again (as well as in the Tirreno apparantly). He had promised close family to fix the problems when they re-emerged again, so now he will undergo a heart operation before restarting his career as cyclist.

This would indicate that his arrhythmia is a physical problem at least partly (these kind of things come together usually, once you start worrying about it the arrhythmia will become more frequent and pronounced, at least in case of the person closish to me I talked about). The talk earlier today by that journalist about this being a mental problem seems to be wrong or at least partly wrong. Of course, that still doesn't explain why he does so well in the US and Canada compared to Europe, but that could have other reasons too: it is true he generally dislikes press and pressure and I don't think that (fully) relates to his heart problems.

Because of the heart problems, he had to undergo checks on his heart of course. As far as I know, one gets a heartrate monitor for one or a few days which registers heartrate and irregularities to be able to diagnose the problem. This is very different from a pacemaker (no pacemaker for Gesink) which is an implanted device that controls heartrate too and runs on a nuclear battery. A heartrate monitor does nothing to fix problems, it only registers them.

If he should undergo operation, it's definitely physical problem. Nobody will make surgery when your heart is healthy and problem lies only in your head. But he could have both - heart physical condition and panic attacks.

 

[Arnout]

If he should undergo operation, it's definitely physical problem. Nobody will make surgery when your heart is healthy and problem lies only in your head. But he could have both - heart physical condition and panic attacks.

Question of course is what caused what, but yeah, it's definately physical too. And like I said, with these kind of problems physical and mental condition often go hand in hand.

 

[peloton]

Could someone who speaks Dutch translate what he said at the PC today please?

Hope all the best for him.

 

[l.Harm]

Not really new information compared to what already has been written here. He has no clue when he returns but I read that it's very unlikely we'll see him this Tour de France.

 

[Red Rick]

Armstrong overcame cancer, Contador overcame brain surgery, Froome overcame schistosomiasis...............

He'll win the tour next year

Seriously though, it's all too bad and very hard to cope with. I hope he recovers well

 

[SafeBet]

Just read the bad news. Hope the best for him.
Thanks Arnout for the useful posts and let us know if there's any update.

 

[HSNHSN]

^^ They have to erase a bad spot on or near his heart, it's not an extraordinary operation apparently.

It depends a bit. If this is some sinus tachycardia, which it sounds like, the operation is supposedly in two parts. The first part is to find out where in the heart exactly the problem occurs and the second part is then to remove it by 'burning' it away (whatever exactly that means). The first part is fairly intensive, since it involves probing around and releasing electric currents inside the heart in the hopes of starting the disorder. If the tachycardia occured during the heart monitoring which Gesink had, it is fairly well-known where the problem is and the first part should be relatively easy (i.e. relatively little probing around). The second part then isn't too extraordinary, indeed.

Not really new information compared to what already has been written here. He has no clue when he returns but I read that it's very unlikely we'll see him this Tour de France.

That is unlikely indeed. Recovering from this operation is supposed to take several months and how long exactly is for a good part determined by the difficulty of finding the exact spot. The harder it is to find, the longer the recovery will take.



Source: my recollection of talks with a cardiologist when a family member suffered from this problem some years ago. There will be some mistakes - memory isn't perfect after all.

Edit: and of course I wish Gesink good luck with this operation. It's tough on everyone to undergo such an operation, it must be tougher for a sportsman who rather depends on his heart.

 

[Arnout]

It's tough on everyone to undergo such an operation, it must be tougher for a sportsman who rather depends on his heart.

I'd say everyone depends on his or her heart but I get your point Thanks for the elaboration.

 

[DominicDecoco]

I'd say everyone depends on his or her heart but I get your point Thanks for the elaboration.

Nah, there is quite an amount of heartless people in here..

 

[dave155]

Possible Issue for RH

Link Below-
A common problem in general population !
I know a few succesful athletes that have had this in various degrees. Can be fixed with Ablation I recall with some success in patients.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolff–Parkinson–White_syndrome

Speculation of course.

 

[Kokoso]

Question of course is what caused what, but yeah, it's definately physical too. And like I said, with these kind of problems physical and mental condition often go hand in hand.

Physical heart condition isn't caused by psychological condition. In some cases it could be the other way round. But the conditions can exist together. Anyway it can be hard for one to cope with.

 

[arvc40]

Hope Gesink does not have an underlying problem and the ablation therapy works for him.

I was an Elite Uk cyclist when I was diagnosed with ARVC/ARVD at the age of 21.

Have not been able to ride my bike since.

ARVC causes fibrosis in the right ventricle and this leads to disruption of normal sinus rhythm.

I had 5 ablation therapy's but in my case the area that needed ablation was to large and therefore to dangerous to proceed.

Hopefully like many others ablation will work out for him.

As a young athlete with dreams and aspirations you can imagine its pretty hard to take and there is nothing more I would like to do than to ride my bike.

 

[arvc40]

Some of you may remember the uk Pro Mountain bike rider David Baker. He also had ARVD and it ended his career. Funnily enough I took the article that explained Bakers condition from cycling weekly and showed it to my doctor as i had all the same symptoms.

Turned out I had the exact same condition.

 

[Kokoso]

Who do you think was bigger talent? Gesink or Nibali?

 

[ILovecycling]

Who do you think was bigger talent? Gesink or Nibali?

Schleck

edit:Gesink coz of dutch hype

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

predicted his retirement 3 or 4 years ago and seems it going to happen. even fi he's desperate to not see all the hints he receives throughout the last years. this guy clealry doesn't know what else there is in life than cycling.

 

[theyoungest]

predicted his retirement 3 or 4 years ago and seems it going to happen. even fi he's desperate to not see all the hints he receives throughout the last years. this guy clealry doesn't know what else there is in life than cycling.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

predicted his retirement 3 or 4 years ago and seems it going to happen. even fi he's desperate to not see all the hints he receives throughout the last years. this guy clealry doesn't know what else there is in life than cycling.

I don't think he'll retire, though. Dekker probably won't either, at least not yet. But Gesink definitely not. He still thinks he can somehow return to being a GT / Tour de France specialist. That certainly won't change post surgery, if there are no complications. People usually recover from it in a short period of time.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I don't think he'll retire, though. Dekker probably won't either, at least not yet. But Gesink definitely not. He still thinks he can somehow return to being a GT / Tour de France specialist. That certainly won't change post surgery, if there are no complications. People usually recover from it in a short period of time.

thomas will retire no doubt. no team will offer him a contract anymore

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

 

[theyoungest]

I don't think he'll retire, though. Dekker probably won't either, at least not yet. But Gesink definitely not. He still thinks he can somehow return to being a GT / Tour de France specialist. That certainly won't change post surgery, if there are no complications. People usually recover from it in a short period of time.

Why on earth are you comparing him to Dekker? He's just a mediocre domestique while Gesink has been solidly among the 50 best riders in the world even in the last few seasons when, apparently, he should already have retired.

...snipped...

A picture from 2009, you're not going to argue that he sucked back then, are you?