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Lars van der Haar finally feels fully recovered from coronavirus

Dutch rider back to normal after a full six weeks off the bike

Photo by: Cor Vos

After a long, hard-fought cyclocross season, Lars van der Haar just wanted a break to recover. His Austrian ski trip, taken way back in March, ended up being anything but relaxing. Following his return to the Netherlands, van der Haar discovered he had contracted the coronavirus.

The trouble started after returning from the alpine adventure in Gerlos, Austria. At home in Woudenberg, the Dutch rider started to feel ill.

“At first I got tired quickly, then I got a high fever and even with normal breathing I felt my lungs burn,” the Telenet-Baloise cyclocrosser told Het Nieuwsblad. “Then I knew: this must be corona.”

Van der Haar isolated at home, and was able to rid himself of the most serious effects quickly. Other effects lingered. “I still had lung pain for two weeks and at some point I noticed that my sense of smell and taste were gone.”

Diagnosis and a cautious return to training

Now, after six full weeks off of the bike and away from training, the 28-year-old feels fully recovered from the virus.

With the long-term effects of COVID-19 still unknown, the van der Haar says he was extremely cautious about his return to the bike.

“Once I started training again, I took it very easy for two weeks to give my lungs time to fully recover. I was really worried,” says van der Haar. “I did not cycle for more than two hours in two weeks. All at a low intensity.”

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The extra caution was warranted. While the Dutch rider’s symptoms matched those of the coronavirus, official confirmation was slow to arrive. Van der Haar was only able to confirm his suspicions two weeks ago, after a test performed in Belgium.

“I had a lot of antibodies in the blood. So we did a good job, because if I had trained hard again too quickly, I could have suffered permanent lung or heart damage. ”

We’re glad to see van der Haar’s recovery appears to have gone well. It’s a good reminder that anyone can catch coronavirus, and that even the fittest among us can have very serious symptoms as a result.