Team Movistar rider Andrey Amador ended the year on a bad note, being hospitalised in Costa Rica after a vicious attack by thugs who left him unconscious and with bad injuries.
The 24 year old was out training alone, doing his final ride of the 2010 season, when he was assaulted by the occupants of two cars. He fled on foot, leaving behind his bike which is thought to have been the target of the crime.
However they pursued him and continued their assault. “They left him unconscious and afterwards probably beat him,” said his brother Iván. “He was unconscious on the bank of a river for six hours and when he awoke, late in the evening, and called us by telephone, we went to pick him up. It seems like it was only cuts and bruises, but the following morning he began vomiting and we had to admit him [to hospital].”
Vomiting after a head trauma is often a sign of concussion, and so his family wasted no time. He was taken to the Hospital México in the Costa Rican capital and there doctors performed a through assessment. They deteced that one of his kidneys had temporarily shut down after the beating, and that he had pulmonary bruising that made breathing difficult.
Amador is recovering, and while there will be some disruption to his planned schedule, those close to him don’t envisage any long term complications from the incident.
“He’s been seen by the best specialists in the country and seems to improve each hour,” his brother continued. “He’s now conscious, in good spirits and unless there’s a complication in the hours ahead, everything seems to be going slowly but steadily.”
Amador secured a contact with Caisse d’Epargne after a strong 2008 season, where he won the prologue of the Tour de l’Avenir, netted fifth overall, and also took the Vuelta al Bidasoa. The Costa Rican rode the Giro d’Italia last season, finishing a solid 41st on his Grand Tour debut. He made it into the crucial break on the eleventh stage of the race and worked hard to build the lead; as a result, his team-mate David Arroyo would go on to lead the Giro and to finish second overall.
His team has now changed sponsors to Movistar and once he has recovered sufficiently, Amador will line out in the new colours in their European races.
He was due to take part in the Vuelta a San Luis, which begins on January 17, but that must now be under doubt.