Cycling: Good news from Lotto Soudal's Mallorca training camp. According to the team doctors, Stig Broeckx, who fell badly last May, recently woke up from a coma that lasted more than six months. The career as a professional cyclist is over for the 26-year-old, now it's about fighting back to a normal life.
It happened at the Tour of Belgium in May 2016: two support bikes collided causing a mass crash involving young Lotto Soudal pro Stig Broeckx. The 26-year-old Belgian hit his head on the asphalt at high speed and was immediately unconscious. In the clinic, the doctors found serious brain injuries and had serious doubts as to whether André Greipel's team-mate would ever wake up from the coma.
cycling: Stig Broeckx after a fall in May with 'serious brain damage' - future uncertain
Cycling: Terrible news from Team Lotto Soudal. Stig Broeckx, who fell badly in the Tour of Belgium in May, is still in a coma and suffered serious brain damage in his fall, doctors say, and it's uncertain if the Belgian will regain consciousness. It was May 28, 2016 – during the third stage of the Tour of Belgium […]
After a long period of silence, the first positive signs have now emerged: as the Lotto Soudal team doctors announced at a press conference in the training camp in Mallorca today, Broeckx has now woken up from his coma. But a hard and long way back to life awaits him. "He's about to swallow on his own and spoke a few words for the first time," said senior medic Servaas Bingé. That sounds like bad news at first, but you have to keep in mind that it is "far more than anyone could have ever imagined," emphasized Binge.
We wish Stig and his family a lot of strength and patience and all the best on the road to recovery. All the best!