BOUNCING BACK

What does it take to return from a major injury? James Shrubsall spoke to Israel Start-Up Nation’s Carl Fredrik Hagen, for whom a training crash turned into months of challenging recovery

- James Shrubsall

You can’t blame Carl Fredrik Hagen for feeling more than a little alarmed in the immediate aftermath of his March training crash – he couldn’t find his arm.

The Israel Start-Up Nation rider had been training around his home in Norway and was nearing the end of a four-hour endurance ride on a road he’d ridden many times before when he hit a pothole.

“I immediately lost control,” he says. “There was a barrier at the side of the road and my bike went up it. I went from 40kph to zero in one second.”

The barrier hooked his arm as he flew over it, violently dislocating his right shoulder. He ended up in a ditch on the other side, nearly breaking his leg.

“The first thing I remember was that I couldn’t find my right arm... I couldn’t feel it, I was sure I’d lost it,” said the 29-year-old. “It was super scary... I was thinking this is not good. This is really, really bad.”

Thankfully he hadn’t lost his arm, but it was badly contorted around his back.

Hagen’s accident was one of any number of crashes in training and racing experienced by top-level road racers each year. Sometimes the outcome is little more than a bounce off the tarmac and bruised pride. But all it takes is a minor difference in the way the rider falls, or what they fall onto, and that bruised pride can turn into a significant injury requiring weeks or even months of recovery. It is, unfortunately, part of ‘le metier’.

Crash course