Frédéric Amorison (Landbouwkrediet-Euphony) will begin his eleventh professional season in the coming weeks, though at the mid-point of last season, it appeared as if the Belgian veteran was finished racing.
In June 2011, Amorison suffered a serious crash in the UCI 1.1 Tour de Rijke in the Netherlands, breaking his jaw and his wrist. He still has plates fusing bones together in both places, but after contemplating retirement, the 33-year-old is back on the bike preparing for another season with his Landbouwkrediet squad.
“Everything is fine when you consider where I was,” he admitted in an interview with Cyclisme Revue.eu. “I still have the same plates and screws in the jaw and in the right forearm. I should be able to remove the devices a year after the operation, or at the mid-season point of 2012. But I will wait until the end of the season. The doctor said I still have several months until I feel normal. I lost the feeling in some lower teeth. It will take time to fully recover.”
Amorison was enjoying a solid start to 2011 before the accident happened. His Belgian Continental squad gets most of its big races in the first half of the year, in second-level French races and the Flemish Classics. Amorison began last season with an 11th place in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, before taking a win a week later in Vlaamse Pijl-Harelbeke.
“I was actually with the top ten in Nieuwsblad in 2011,” he lamented. “I won a week later in Harelbeke. I was flying.”
As is the case with some serious accidents, motivation to get back on the bike can sometimes fade. Amorison admitted to struggling with his own motivation before gaining it back over time.
“Yes, of course [I struggled]. Certainly just after the fall,” he admitted. “But over time, I found courage. In June and July, however, I did not want to go on a bike for fear of falling. In August, I rode with cyclists in my village, but I rode two meters behind them. Fifty miles was long.”
Entering the new year, Amorison has made his way back, and he describes his form as progressing. But he still wavers a bit at the thought of re-entering the busy professional peloton.
“Excellent, much better than I had hoped at this time,” he remarked about his conditioning. “I have trained in Tuscany with my team. Then we go on to Marseille and Bessèges. It will simply be an indicator as to my fitness level.
“It is still difficult to get a real idea of what it will be like upon the return to Belgium, when we get to Nieuwsblad, with 200 riders at the start, on roads three meters wide. Where will I be physically? My physical tests for the UCI show that I am on the same level as last year. But training is one thing, and competition is another. Dare I race in the pack? In the traditional Flemish style, one must be very strong and we must not think too much, we must forge ahead.”
As he prepares for his first races of the season and his anxious return to the professional ranks, the thoughtful Belgian indicated that he will be ready to go.
“It is the job. We get paid for it,” he stated. “It is not our business to ask questions. I was training with the team in Ostend, Belgium. It was a workout of six hours in the rain and wind on the side of Mount Kemmel. So what?”