Notre coureur @MertensJulian poursuit sa longue revalidation après son grave accident du mois de mai dernier: « Je veux revenir en me donnant le temps nécessaire » 💪👏🏻👍 ℹ️ Communiqué > shorturl.at/eijLY
After brutal injuries and coma, Julian Mertens back on the bike and hoping to make a comeback in 2024 - "Being a top athlete has helped me take big steps forward"
CyclingSunday, 12 November 2023 at 14:00
Julian Mertens, rider of Bingoal WB, suffered a brutal crash in late May where he suffered numerous serious injuries and was put into an artificial coma to save his life. There was success, and now the Belgian rider is back on the bike after several months of rehabilitation.
“For me, everything stopped at the moment of the accident itself. A tractor had lost part of its load on the road. I certainly lost control of my bike and hit the vehicle," Mertens tells in a message shared by the team. He shares the terrifying list of injuries: “The physical consequences were very significant. My entire upper body, or almost, was fractured, nine ribs, two fractures to the spine, fractured shoulder blade and clavicle, broken jaw and teeth, arms, vertebrae, back of the head, left leg insensible for a few days… The total. I was put in an induced coma for a few days."
The 26-year old underwent multiple surgeries to be able to regain full function of his body but amazingly, he has managed to recover from the injuries. And five months after the crash he got back on the bike. "I was able to very gradually begin to mobilize, to relearn how to walk with my physiotherapist. I had another operation in July on my spine where a prosthesis was implanted. Revalidation could then begin."
He holds a contract until 2024, the climber was eager to recover as best as possible in order to try and maintain his career. "Being a top athlete has helped me take big steps forward. I was able to start running a little again, swimming. I saw my bike again in October. I admit that at the beginning, I felt more tension than usual but it gave me great pleasure to start riding a little again."
“I doubted, I admit. We didn't know, at the beginning, how all these injuries, these fractures, would evolve. The doctors themselves could not say precisely. At this level, we are no longer in the field of exact science, health is everyone's own. I was lucky that everything developed well for me," he happily shares. "I had the first positive feeling after my second operation, when I felt that my progress was rapid. I regained energy."
The off-season is still long and Mertens in unsure of what comes next. But he is ambitioning a return to team training and racing next year. “I want to give time to time, move forward, step by step. It is therefore difficult for me to clearly see the future, to envisage the moment when I will have recovered all my means. I see things in the short term and I hope to make further progress in the coming weeks," he concludes. "My first goal is, and I sincerely hope, to participate in the training courses with the team, even if my level will be adapted to my condition, even if I first train individually before joining a group. »
Read also
claps 0visitors 159
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Thanks Dadmobk22-12-2024
- Hard to believe with the advancment of modern medicine he can not find a cause for this.frieders321-12-2024
- You continue to platform these two cheats. With that in mind I can no longer use your site. I know my leaving means little, but, sometimes you have to take a stand. See ya!DJ21-12-2024
- Look at what Froome’s won since his last TdF, stop denying there is still more than possible one outcome to the future.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Bruyneel understands nothing about clean competition.Sweep21-12-2024
- Exactly. Remco won 3 WT races/stages last year compared to Pogocar's 19. Remco's single stage win in last years TdF earned him a meager 12 seconds over Pogocar who shellac'd him by 9 minutes in GC.Sweep21-12-2024
- Fortunately and as you point out, more than one strategy is possible and worth trying and I’m sure all concerned riders are well informed and counselled on this subject and don’t need such basic personal advice through media from an outsider.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- The main SPOTY award is "decided" by public vote but the BBC "expert panel" decide who you can choose from, that choice has an equal split of genders and is focussed on the sports BBC show and a disabled athlete. Oh yea the ubiquitous "Pub Games" candidate there too, Darts and Snooker are not sports. The other awards are decided by the "Expert Panel" again it's about the sports BBC show, cycling has had it. Cav got his for his years and achievements in the sport, not just that 35th TDF win. Unless the BBC get access to Pro Cycling it will never feature "adequately" on SPOTYslappers6621-12-2024
- Ahhh..... you have to understand the "strange" diversity concepts of the BBCslappers6621-12-2024
- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024