Ronan McLaughlin, the former An Post-Sean Kelly rider and reigning Everesting world record holder, faces a long lay-off from the bike after breaking his leg last week.
The 34-year-old from Donegal, now living in Derry, was out riding his gravel bike in a park in Derry when he came off and broke his left Tibia and Fibia. He also suffered a spiral fracture down the length of his Tibia, the main bone of the lower leg.
"I'd never broken a bone before but hearing the noise of the break and feeling the sensation of it, the one thing I'm certain of is that it was broken before I even hit the ground," he said.
"I was such a weird accident, they was no big impact with the ground; no cuts, my clothing wasn't even cut up. I didn't move until the ambulance got there because I knew the leg was broken. Other people who were in the park at the time came and helped me; rang the ambulance, they were brilliant."
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He was on his gravel bike at the time, which skid out as he was riding. He recalls correcting the skid and thinking he would stay upright, only to hit a muddy and wet section, which threw him off the bike; the bones in his left leg breaking as he was thrown off the bike.
McLaughlin believes the spiral fracture may have occurred during the twisting motion of trying to unclip as he fell. And he believes his Fibia may have been broken when his leg hit the top tube as he fell. However, he said the incident happened so fast he wasn't entirely certain.
The crash occurred last Wednesday, with McLaughlin still in Altnagelvin Hosptal in Derry when he spoke to stickybottle today, a week later. He is hopeful of being discharged on Friday, having now undergone surgery. With a supportive cage on his lower left leg he can already bear some weight on it.
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Now working as a journalist for CyclingTips, and also father to a young daughter, McLaughlin said he would be kept busy while the healing process took its course.
"The doctors said I'll be looking at a minimum of three months recovery and then some rehab after that," he said. "But obviously I'm young and I'm healthy and fit so I'm hoping I'll be on the shorter end of the recovery time."
McLaughlin had planned to road race again this year with Dan Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo, though that was now unlikely. He said he was not thinking about racing at the moment as his top cycling priority was to get back healthy and feeling comfortable on the bike again for fun rides and work.
"The surgery was very painful and when I saw the sheer size of the frame on my leg, that got to me a bit," he said. "But the simple matter of fact is the damage is done and it has to be fixed. And to be honest, I've been on bikes for 20 years and I've never had a serious injury. So I'm counting myself lucky overall."
McLaughlin raced for Continental team An Post-Sean Kelly for six seasons, to the end of 2013. He represented Ireland on the road many times, including in the elite men's race at the World Road Championships in Valkenburg in 2012. He was one of three Irish finishers that day, alongside Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche.
Since hanging up his international racing wheels he has competed at home, winning the Shay Elliott Memorial twice. He also broke the Everesting world record several times during lock-down and is the current holder of that world record.
Last March he rode the 8,848.86 metres required in a time of 6:40:54, close to 20 minutes faster than the record at the time, held by US rider Sean Gardner. In recording that time he reclaimed the world record he had first broken in March, 2020.
We wish McLaughlin well in his recovery.
