Sean Yates has spoken of an accident while working that almost cost him his life after he was impaled on a tree and an 8cm piece of branch lodge inside his body.
The former pro rider - who was a huge fans' favourite in both Britain and Ireland during his career - said Bradley Wiggins bought his Tour de France yellow jersey from him and he then used the money to help pay for surgery.
He fell about 10ft in total while cutting trees and as he
fell he was impaled on one of the newly cut, and sharp, branches.
Yates (60) said after the sharpened branch pierced his flesh through the torso-groin area and impaled him, he continued to fall and the branch broke, with a piece about 8cm long lodging inside him.
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Now living off the grid in rural southern Spain as he builds a house and grows crops on a plot of land he bought, Yates explained he was fully recovered but felt lucky to survive.
While he had a long career, and held the yellow jersey in
the Tour de France for a day, he continued to do some gardening work and
cutting hedges in winter.
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And when he stopped racing, though he worked for periods
as a DS with Team Sky and Saxo Tinkoff, he continued with the gardening work
during winter breaks.
And it was while carrying out such work in 2016 that his
accident happened; falling off a ladder as he was using a chainsaw.
“That almost did
me in,” he said of the incident. “A branch went right through me. I was quite
lucky I survived, to be honest.”
The injury put him in even more peril because the first hospital he went to felt the injury was too complicated so they sent him further away, to Brighton.
“I was in a real state when they wheeled me in,” he told VeloNews of eventually getting to hospital for badly needed treatment.
“It was a stupid mistake. I fell about 10 feet onto a big
hedge, and a branch went straight into me, right next to my anus. I kept
falling, and an eight-centimeter piece was left inside me.”
He underwent a six-hour operation and was in bed recovering for six weeks. As well as being impaled he also fractured is sacrum bone – between the hips – and did serious damage to his calf muscle.
Yates faced significant medical bills arising from his accident and he said he sold his 1994 Tour de France yellow jersey to Bradley Wiggins, who collects cycling memorabilia, and used some of the money towards surgery.
Wiggins has said he idolised Yates, who was a DS with Team Sky when Wiggins won the Tour. Their relationship has been very strong for almost 20 years, with Yates saying it proved important when he really needed it.
Now coaching top riders through his Sean Yates Coaching business and working as a brand ambassador for Ribble ebikes, he has also just joined Nippo Delko One Provence as a coach.
Yates retired in 1996 and though he spent most of his career in the service of team leaders, he took a string of top wins, including Tour and Vuelta stages and the British national championships.
He claimed a stage in Paris-Nice, the Critérium du
Dauphiné and took overall victory in the Tour of Belgium, among many other wins.
He turned pro with Peugeot-Shell-Michelin in 1982 where Stephen Roche was among his team mates. He also rode for Fagor, 7-Eleven and Motorola.
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