Álvaro Hodeg packed his bags to spend the final days of 2021 in Montería with his family. He was in Medellin with Felipe, his brother, with whom he counted the hours to leave his house and meet his family.
It was December 18 and the plan was to travel on the 19, but fate played a trick on them.
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Álvaro, who months earlier had signed with the UAE Emirates team, After his departure from the Deceuninck structure, to which he belonged for four years, he was excited about the change of squad and was eager to win more sprinting competitions.
Hodeg, for a moment, found himself on the ground. He arrived at his house and a car hit him, took him from the front. Passers-by helped him, the man who was driving, went to the hospital and at once underwent surgery.
“Initially they straightened my ankle, wrist and shoulder bones on the right side of my body with rods on the outside. That night they put the fixators on me,” Hodeg said.
And he added: “And 7 days later, on December 31, they operated on my ankle and wrist. It went well, the wrist had an infection and they had to operate again to heal that part. All this has been difficult, I thought the recovery would be faster”.
Hodeg, who was born on September 16, 1996, he had surgery, again on his hand, last week, because the infection had affected him too much.
“My ankle is fine. I started walking last week. The doctor told me that he gave me free rein to do it without support and that has been like a balm, really,” Hodeg told EL TIEMPO.
The UAE Emirates team cyclist says that they had to operate on his ankle on December 31 and then on January 5.
“It was an ankle brace, but look, today, at least, I can walk, and that has me in high spirits,” he declared.
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“The hardest thing was the first moment when the doctors told me I couldn’t walk again.”
The first days after the accident were not good. Admitted to the clinic, the doctors told him that it was very likely that he would not be able to walk again and, of course, to ride a bicycle.
“The hardest thing was the first moment when the doctors told me that I couldn’t walk again and I thought about my career, about not riding a bike. Sure, I got sad, because I had a responsibility with my new team, I had not been able to debut with him and they put all my trust in my abilities. That day my soles were damaged”, declared a Hodeg encouraged to return quickly to the competition.
Therefore, these days have been very happy. Álvaro warns that those moments when the doctors predicted that he could not walk again were very complicated, but that it has been worth so much sacrifice.
“Anxiety grabs you and doesn’t let go, but the key has been family and God, because they have given me a lot of patience. It is not easy, because there are days when you depend on other people, who take you to the bathroom, who help you brush your mouth, eat, in short, they are a series of events that you are not used to, ” counted.
“One is a high-performance athlete, but also a human being and pain does not respect. I had to endure, because the more one tolerates the pain, the better”, specified a Hodeg who already sees the light at the end of the tunnel.
See the races. He sits in front of the television and analyzes them, he forces his companions, who, in addition, have been very attentive to his evolution.
“Everyone has contacted me. Tadej Pogacar called me when he raced in Abu Daba and Tirreno-Adriatico. He is a good person, super special and an animal on the bike, “he said.
He does not know when he will return to training, to competition. He says that he wants to do it soon, but there is no need to skip normality either. He believes that in the middle of this year he can do it. He has been riding for six months and that is giving gabela. Once they give him the green light he will start rolling.
“A technician from the team will come in the next few days to see my reality first-hand. The truth is that when I think about everything that has happened, I feel that I have progressed, but I cannot leave what has happened to me behind. I don’t know how many times I’ve gone to the operating room, I lost count, but the truth is that what matters now is getting out of this, recovering and being the runner I was before”, said a Hodeg who lives his own ordeal and who wants to get out quickly from him to give more joy to his father, Álvaro, his mother, Elsa and Felipe.
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Lisandro Rengifo
Editor of THE TIME
@lisandroabel
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