Colombian cycling is not going through a good time, and it is not due to the lack of triumphs, it is for the death of the young promise Andrés Arévalo, who fell in the fourth stage of the Vuelta de la Juventud.
Arévalo was part of the IMRD Zipa-Soacha team and suffered a fall when the test traveled through the El Bolo sector, Valle del Cauca, on the day that ended in Palmira.
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EL TIEMPO spoke with Fabián Bernal, Arévalo’s coach, who told details of the accident, of the days in the clinic and described the young cyclist.
How was Andrew?
“He was a calm, judicious, dedicated boy, with a lot of discipline. It came into my hands because I worked at the club in 2017 and he went to see if he could be part of the team at the end of 2018,” Bernal said.
And I add: “Dad really liked cycling. He already had acquaintances in cycling and they invited him to ride and he gave results, That’s why we put him in the team, in the club. He was a very complete rider, he rode well on the flat, in the time trials and climbed very well”.
Arévalo, who would turn 18 this Saturday, finished high school two years ago and Bernal told him that the best thing was to take an English course, along with training and competitions.
“I was doing an English course, because there are options to leave the country and it was an opportunity to progress. He finished high school two years ago and I told him to study, he was already at level two,” said Bernal.
Bernal and his boys training are tough, well, that’s cycling. The DT says that Arévalo was very interested in progressing and the practices had an intensity of 22 hours per week.
Fabián Bernal is in charge of four categories of the club from Funza, Cundinamarca, including one of ladies. He says that now without Andrés he has 15 cyclists left.
“Support is difficult. I have to find sponsors. I have three landlines and the Funza Sports Institute collaborates with us. Ferrecanales J & M, AC Heavy Load Transport Maintenance and Gity Bicycle Shop and an accounting firm that helps me”, she specified.
Precisely, he was the road technician, in that Vuelta de la Juventud and he told the details of how he realized the accident.
“It was kind of weird. The stage had already passed the dangerous places, the three mountain passes. I stopped the car for a moment, I was going with the mechanic. We were entering the caravan of cars when there was talk on the radio of the accident, of a fall. We approached the site and saw Andrés on the floor, we saw his bicycle”Bernal pointed out.
Arévalo was not named at the time of the fall because he did not have a number on the bicycle because they had changed, he was on the spare.
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“I arrived at the site and saw him on the floor, he tried to stop, but the blow to the head was so strong and he convulsed. They took him to the ambulance. I didn’t get on because I had to finish the stage with the other guys, they were still in competition,” said Bernal, very shocked.
Once the fraction was over, Fabián Bernal ran to the hospital, but not before looking for his pupil’s documents.
“The stage ended, I went to the clinic and handed over Andrés’ personal documents so they could open his medical history. They transferred him to Palma Real and he was hospitalized there until he died.” told the DT.
“It was learned that he had a blood clot in his head, that his brain was in poor condition.”
In the first instance, says Bernal, Arévalo went to have a CAT scan done, but nobody expected that the result would be so difficult to assimilate.
“It was learned that he had a blood clot in his head, that his brain was in poor condition, but The doctor said that he should be operated on immediately and that’s where it all started.” accurate.
From the beginning they were told that Andrés’s health was delicate, that the prognosis was reserved and that his life was in danger.
Knowing this, Bernal contacted the cyclist’s family. He spoke with his father, Joaquín, and began the task of having them move from Funza to Palmira.
“They traveled the same day, they arrived at midnight. I picked them up at the airport and we went to the hospital. Doctors only give official information to the family”said the technician.
devastating news
Fabián Bernal always knew that Arévalo’s life depended on a miracle, but he always trusted his recovery. He entrusted his health to God, but the news of his death was devastating.
Bernal, almost in tears, with a muffled voice, lamented what happened and said that since the beginning of the Vuelta de la Juventud, Andrés was not the best.
He warned that he had no luck, that he always experienced a mishap, until the day of the fatal accident.
“The aerodynamic bike failed him in the time trial and we changed it. In the second stage he had a breakdown, he was left from the main group, he had to chase almost alone and that day he lost 30 minutes, ”said the DT.
Fabián Bernal hoped that he would recover to be the protagonist of the race, but it was not like that, Arévalo continued to have problems, he went to the ground in the same place where Diego Suta died in the 2016 race.
“The blows were not so strong, because I was still in the race. He fell on the same curve where Suta died a few years ago and his helmet broke there. We put another one on it, but it wasn’t the best,” he said.
Fabián Bernal recounted a key moment, that of the helmet, an element so vital for cyclists that not wearing it is fatal to their integrity.
“Since he didn’t have the usual helmet, the one he used, because a runner who had left due to a time limit lent him one. It wasn’t good, that’s what we realized in the accident. It happened before starting the stage and he put it on. That’s how it had come out for that stage and look what happened, ”said the technician.
“For one it is hard. I saw him since he was little, I trained him, I took him to fulfill a dream, not to a date with death. It was collected and he was there, but I emphasize that he was very calm and quiet, “said Fabián Bernal.
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Lisandro Rengifo
EL TIEMPO journalist
@lisandroabel
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