Trek-Segafredo sports director Steven de Jongh has been found following temporarily going missing yesterday near his Girona home. The Dutchman was found having crashed his bike on a training ride and has thankfully sustained no major injuries other than a concussion.
The alarm was sounded when De Jongh's wife, Renee, posted a message to her Twitter page asking for assistance in the search for he husband.
De Jongh had left home for a bike ride around 10:30am and was yet to have returned or contacted Renee by the afternoon.
Renee's tweet was then picked up by a wave of cycling journalists, professionals and former professionals who furthered the call to help find 44-year-old.
While the local Catalunyian emergency services launched a search and rescue operation for the then-missing person, the cycling internet world banded together to create their own spectacular investigation.
Strava Flyby
Using popular GPS app Strava, individuals were able to track De Jongh's last known whereabouts on his ride before going missing.
They found that the GPS signal had ended abruptly just before a well-used descent close to the La Ganga area.
Flyby not only helped locate De Jongh's last know location but it also picked out a fellow rider who was seen to be in the same location at around the same time. Strava and Twitter users tried to locate this rider, although this proved not necessary.
Strava eventually helped guide the searching helicopter which then found De Jongh, unconscious, at the bottom of a ravine but thankfully breathing and with a pulse.
De Jongh was brought back to consciousness at the scene by paramedics before being transferred to a local hospital in the nearby city of Girona where further examinations showed him to have suffered a severe concussion.
Trek-Segafredo released a short comment from De Jongh stating that 'everything hurts right now' but that he is thankful for no broken bones.
How and why the accident happened remain unclear and a subsequent police investigation will look into the incident although local reports have suggested De Jongh could have been the victim of a hit and run.
Many commented on the effort of the cycling community to help find De Jongh including fellow Dutchman and current LottoNL-Jumbo rider, Robert Gesink, who tweeted his thanks to Strava and the police and fire departments of Catalunya.
De Jongh has remained under observation in hospital and like the rest of the cycling community, Cyclist wishes De Jongh a speedy recovery.