Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel thought his cycling career may be over after his horror crash in December, he said on Thursday, a day before his comeback race in the Brabantse Pijl.
The 25-year-old Belgian suffered multiple injuries in the accident, including fractures to his rib, shoulder blade and hand, contusions to his lungs, and a dislocation of his right clavicle that left the surrounding ligaments torn.
He crashed into a postal vehicle's open door while he was on a training ride in Oetingen, Belgian media reported.
"Of course, the injuries were quite severe," Evenepoel said in a video press conference when asked if he thought about retirement.
"With my shoulder, where all the muscles, all the ligaments were destroyed, the surgery was a heavy one.
"It was just a difficult period, the second time for the same shoulder in six months. So at a certain point, you start to doubt, will the shoulder be healthy again? Will it be functional again?"
The Soudal-Quick Step rider, who finished third in last year's Tour de France, said he also suffered a nerve problem in his shoulder.
"This one has not healed yet, so there's a part of the shoulder muscle that is not working at all for the moment. If I were a tennis, a volleyball or basketball player, my career would have been over. Luckily I'm a cyclist," he said.
Evenepoel has suffered several big crashes in recent years such as at the 2020 Giro di Lombardia and when he fell in the Tour of the Basque Country, an accident also involving two-times Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard.
"It's not the first big crash that I've had. Coming out of a period of off-season did not make it any easier knowing that everybody was starting to train again and I had to wait for six more weeks doing absolutely nothing," the reigning time trial world champion told reporters.
Evenepoel will start the Brabantse Pijl on Friday before racing the Amstel Gold Race, La Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which he has won twice (2022 and 2023).
"I'm behind my top shape, but I'm still in a good shape. Will it be enough to beat guys like (Tom) Pidcock and (Tadej) Pogacar, who are in the shapes of their lives, I don't know," Evenepoel said.
When asked if he could beat Pogacar, he said: "If I don't believe it, I won't be at the start... If I have good legs, why not."
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