THE CRASH.
In 2023, I have been involved in a very bad car-vs-bike accident, which had a big impact on my life.
Here’s the story.
This is the Salsa Warbird, my first carbon bike that I was planing to travel with as my bikepacking bike. At some point I bought a second wheelset so I could use it with thinner tires, as a road bike. It was perfect.
But, less than 8 months after building it…
OCTOBER 2023 - IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE - BOOM!
ALMOST GONE.
• What & how:
As I was returning home from a weekly group bike ride around Paris, BOOM.
I was like unplugged from life. According to the police, I crossed an intersection without checking for oncoming traffic, when I should have stopped to let a car go by. I was apparently the one at fault.
But since I don’t remember anything of it at all. All I can say is “okay”, shrug my shoulders and deal with it.
I don’t really know what happened, I don’t know if it was painful, I don’t know how things went after the crash…
Straight into a coma.
The impact sent me straight into a coma. Three weeks later, I eventually woke up.
It felt to me like I had just taken a 30-minute nap. In reality, it was a three-week nap…
The medical staff told me that thay couldn’t tell if I would ever wake up again, and that without a helmet, I would have been gone for sure.
Getting somewhere meant having someone push me around in a wheelchair.My mom told me that at some point, when things were looking pretty bad, she was talking about organ donation with the medical staff… Fortunately, I wasn’t here to hear about that.
For a few months after waking up, I couldn’t walk anymore. I couldn’t even just stand up on my own. Taking a shower consisted in getting washed by someone else… But hey, at least I was still here.
• UPDATE - June 2025, a year and a half later.
I attended a rehab hospital several times a week for over a year. I learned how to walk again, and even how to ride a (real) bike again! My first bike ride after the accident had to be on a stationary rehab bike – something I never thought I would say one day.
Today, I still have a few after-effects from that: I have very annoying speech difficulties (for neurological reasons), and my right eye is no longer aligned with the other one, which is forcing me to mask it to avoid double vision.
But that's okay; at least I'm not in a wheelchair, or lying down in a wooden box.
• UPDATE - June 2026 - Two years and a half later.
In four months, the accident happened three years ago. But I still feel like it was only three weeks ago.
Today, I still have difficulties expressing myself - for neurological reasons. My right eye is still messed up and will never recover, so I’m still wearing that mask over my glasses to avoid double vision.
I don’t ride my bikes as much as before. Before the accident, I used to ride my bikes to work every day, and taking part of several group rides each week, almost all year round.
Now, I only use my bike to get to work. This crash definitely had a negative impact on my physical condition.
Maybe I should find something else other than cycling?
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FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ME, MY PHOTOS, THE ACCIDENT, AND WHY I DECIDED TO MAKE A BOOK AS A RESPONSE TO IT︎
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