Wayside
RECOVERY
A Broken Neck and a Trainer
15:55, 21 October 2023
That's the day No Borders team rider Julian Siemons finished 5th place at a UCI cyclocross event. He had been competing for second until a crash on the last lap.
That crash took him out of contention for the silver medal, and despite still finishing the race strong, he would soon find out that backward tumble would also derail his entire season. Julian had broken his neck.
Read on to hear about his crash and recovery, in his own words.
I was on the last lap of a cyclocross race in Heerderstrand, the Netherlands. I was riding a strong race – competing for second place in a UCI cross – and this was just about the most important moment in the race. The winner already had a nice lead, but anything was possible behind him. I headed into the sandy section and was able to create a good gap. This was followed by a long straight, where I had to give everything to keep this lead. After this came two difficult sandy bends where I flew in at full speed. Just a little too short against an iron pole and then suddenly I fell behind my bike. My head took a heavy impact, but I didn't really realize that at the time. High on adrenaline, I got straight back on the bike and while I didn’t feel any immediate pain, I could tell that I was struggling to keep my head straight.
I ended up finishing 5th.... But it was unimaginable how it turned out afterward.
The first aiders came over straight away but according to them, there was no problem at all. After a quick shower, we drove home. It was a 2-hour drive and I felt my neck muscles getting increasingly tighter. Back at the house, I tried to take a proper shower, but it didn't last long: one wrong move and my entire neck cramped. I could no longer hold in the pain and had to hold my head myself. My parents helped me get dressed and we went straight to the hospital.
As soon as they saw the scan results, there was a sense of panic: My cervical vertebra C2 was fractured and I had to be hospitalized immediately.
Some Hours Later, In the Hospital
On the night of the accident, I was thinking all the time how I was going to handle the rest of the season. The Belgian Championship was in January, so I calculated that I’d be able to make it to the start line. I was kidding myself; that turned out to be a total utopia. The day after my accident, I saw my surgeon for the first time and was told the severity of my accident. I was lucky that I still had feeling in my body and could function normally. I could've just as easily been done with cycling and professional sports in general. That hit me hard and made me think during those first days in the hospital.
I now understood that my cyclocross season was over. And somewhere I could make peace with that. I was happy that I was still alive and that if I recovered well, my body would feel like it did before. In the end, nothing is more important than your own health and I realized that very quickly.
Leaving the Hospital
For the first three days in the hospital, I received a huge number of visits from friends and family, which felt great. I was really tired afterward, but this way the days progressed a bit. These moments gave me a lot of encouragement. Of course, there were also other lonely moments alone in the hospital and afterward at home. Moments when I couldn't do anything but stare ahead and hold my head still. In these moments, I thought mainly about how I could have prevented everything and how such a stupid fall could cause this verdict.
On weekends, the highlight of the day was watching racing. But it felt so frustrating thinking that I should have been there at the start myself. I really noticed how my friends, parents, the team, and my girlfriend were there for me, and knowing that I have good people around me was a big asset.
"I was allowed to wear a softer brace and allowed to try training indoors"
Discover the Kit
Julian's choice of training equipment included the CONCEPT Radiator Jersey and LUXE bib Short.
14 Days Later, On a Walk
I have had times when I’ve been out of competition due to crashes, but nothing like this. The doctors told me that walking would be the first physical activity I could do. Breathing the fresh air again and feeling that things were improving. Close to my home, there is a beautiful forest where I usually do my running training. That was the ideal place to complete my walks this time.
As an elite athlete, you want to get better every week and be able to exercise longer, faster, harder, more. I had that same feeling while walking. I went from walking for 15 minutes to 2 hours. It felt good, but it’s hard to deny that walking is not quite as fun as cycling. But I was making progress and that was the main thing.
Days Before Christmas
The first two checkups after one month and after two months were not really enough to get a soft brace, according to my surgeon. So I spent the first two months living in a "rack" with my head. Since my first surgeon was not very positive about the healing and there was constant talk of surgery, we went looking for a second opinion. I ended up with a neck surgeon who was used to working with athletes and as soon as we hit two months, they gave me some good news. I was allowed to wear a softer brace and allowed to try training indoors on the rollers. That was a completely different result than I was used to and because I never had pain it seemed the most realistic to me.
This was just before Christmas and it was the best Christmas present they could give me at that time.
The first few days on the bike were tough and felt very heavy. I had never been without a bike for more than two months. I realized that it was going to be a long road back to my top form.
The first few weeks went by slowly, but I had a purpose again and was able to get back to doing what I love most. When I look back on December and the holidays during this month, it was especially hard to get back in touch with other people and get outside. I had to tell my story two or three times everywhere I went, and some people looked at me a little weird with that brace around my neck. That was a tough period.
January 17
At the beginning of January, I tested what it felt like to ride on the rollers without a brace; I could feel that my muscles were having to adjust. After each ride, I’d still put on the brace. That period was the ideal transition to today. On January 17, I was told that I could take off my brace. It was a strange feeling, but I quickly got used to it. Being relieved of everything that has been around my neck for the past few months gives me the feeling that I can also leave everything behind me and work fully towards the future.
A neck heals very slowly and I can only return to competition after six months. I will definitely need this time to get back in shape, but my neck also needs this time to be 100% healed again. This doesn't change the schedule much, but I still have to wait until at least February to be allowed to ride outside again.
My gravel season starts in April/May. The day of my comeback is April 28, by then I hope to feel myself again, back in full shape and be able to show that I have returned stronger from this setback.
