Norway’s Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility is a miracle man. Just over ten days ago, the 29-year-old fell heavily on stage one of the Baloise Belgium Tour which left him with a broken collarbone, an injury which could typically see a rider off the bike for months.
However, Abrahamsen was surprisingly given the all-clear to start the Tour de France on Saturday after just nine days of recovery time, having already been initially named as part of the Uno-X team when the crash in Belgium occurred.
"I went and saw a specialist in Manchester to look at it. The doctor checked me and he was very very happy, he was saying that this isn’t normal, a collarbone recovery can usually take more than eight weeks. He was pretty surprised at my situation, I am super human," Abrahamsen told Cycling Weekly.
Abrahamsen has been a key rider for Uno-X in the last two Tours he’s ridden for the team, he also wore the polka-dot jersey as leader in the mountains classification for ten stages last year after several long stints in the breakaway.
"The Tour de France has been the biggest goal for me since the start of last November. I’ve trained hard every day to be good for this moment. It was such a shit time to then crash in Belgium, but that’s cycling sometimes," he added. "I did not then have much hope of being able to go to the Tour but every day since then has been fast, I’ve got better and better which is crazy.
"I managed to get back outside to ride my bike very quickly, I’ve been so lucky that it was the end of the bone, not the middle. At the Tour I will try to get in the breakaway again now," he added. "We have a lot of strong guys, sprinters and others, but if I can get in the breaks again then I will for sure try."
When asked what was behind such a quick recovery, Abrahamsen explained that doing the basics correctly as an athlete went a long way in ensuring that his time off the bike was minimal.
"Maybe I’m a super hero," he joked. "It’s not very often that stuff like this happens and you recover quickly so maybe my body is different. I think having positivity in this situation is important, you should never give up when injured. Trust yourself and your body and the rest will come. I eat healthy, I did everything perfect with training, eating and sleeping so anything was possible for me in the end."
The Tour de France gets underway in Lille on Saturday 5 July.
