Jonas Vingegaard will race the Clásica de San Sebastián on Saturday, in the same area of Spain–Basque Country–where he suffered his horrific crash in April.
Vingegaard went down with several other riders, including Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel, but his injuries were the worst. “I was in a lot of pain—not just in my ribs but inside my body. I could feel it was from my lung, and when I coughed up blood, I knew it wasn’t good. From there, I was taken to the hospital, where they first checked my collapsed lung,” he said. “They put in a drain that evening, and I think I had the drain in my lung for eight days. In addition to that, I had broken several bones.”
The long road back
After the crash, he spent 12 days in hospital and began the long road to recovery. He went through extensive rehabilitation and slowly began training again. It was unclear if he would race the Tour de France until only a week before. Despite not doing any lead-up races, he still did well, finishing second overall to Tadej Pogačar.
“I was really tired after the Tour de France. For five days I did absolutely nothing. I recharged my batteries and then started training again,” he said.
As far as being in the same vicinity where he had such a terrible experience, he is looking forward to the race.
“It will be special to return to the Basque Country after everything that happened a few months ago. Fortunately, I also have many good memories from that area, so I look forward to racing there again,” Vingegaard said.
Other riders racing in Spain include Marc Hirschi, Maxim Van Gils, Alex Aranburu, Mikel Landa, Ben O’Connor, Romain Bardet, Lenny Martinez, and Santiago Buitrago.
The 236-km one-day race is a hilly one and favours climbers like Vingegaard.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…