Of Chinchina On February 21, 1995, the group of cyclists from the Manzana Postobón team left for a day of training with a view to reaching the Return to Antioch.
The day dawned grey, the sky was overcast: the downpour would break at any moment. The team was led by José A. López and Patrocinio Jiménez, who, with their teammates, had celebrated the title of the Vuelta al Tolima on the legs of Néstor Mora.
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The rain grew heavier, as expected, but the downpour was short-lived and cleared up. However, the floor went on like soap. The cyclists were two abreast and in the place known as three doorThe unexpected happened.
A SAW 238 tractor trailer was coming from the opposite direction of the lot and at an unusual speed. In front of her was a truck with gas cylinders.
When taking a curve and to avoid going over the truck, its driver Marino London slammed on the brakes, so unluckily that the empty trailer skidded, went sideways, and hit the jeep driven by Conrad Pulgarinwhich at that time surpassed the group of cyclists.
Mora, Hernán Patiño, Augusto Triana and Asdrúbal Patiño They were the most affected, since they received all the impact of the trailer and the jeep.
death and desolation
There were moments of panic. Broken bicycles, wheels, caramañolas were seen on the asphalt. The cyclists tried to stop, while cries for help, of pain, were heard. Those who did not suffer from the accident tried to hit the two drivers guilty of the tragedy.
Libardo Leyton jumped out of the car. No one could believe what was happening. Some sat down to cry, others ran from side to side looking for help. Ruber Alberto Marina specialist in packaging arrivals, was the one who woke up his colleagues from lethargy.
“Are we going to leave them here? Bring the truck,” she yelled.
As best they could, they got Mora, the two Patiños up, while Luis Alberto Gonzalez and Julio Bernal they were in charge of arranging the bodies in the back of the car. Difficult moments were experienced.
Mora and Hernán Patiño died on the way. They could not survive that great tragedy, the worst that Colombian cycling has experienced in its history. Bernal relates that Hernán Patiño told him not to let him die, to do everything possible, but fate was different, the runner left, after his partner took his hand and began to pray.
Asdrúbal had another luck. He was upset. The bones of his left leg came out of his skin; his femur was broken in two parts, above the knee and at the hip. His jaw bone was out and he was groaning, he was screaming in pain.
“Crazy, I can’t stand these pains, I want to die”, Asdrúbal told Bernal, who reported that on several occasions the Valle del Cauca wanted to jump out of the car. “No, don’t leave, wait until we get to the hospital soon,” Julio told him, still traumatized, sad and upset by the death of Hernán and Mora.
“I lasted a month and a half in a coma, in a hospital in Manizales.”
Asdrúbal says that he tells the story because it is a miracle. He believes in God and knows that he gave him another chance, because he suffered a lot, not only that terrible day, but also those that followed the tragedy.
“I lasted a month and a half in a coma, in a hospital in Manizales. I remember that little by little I remembered the accident. It is an opportunity that God gave me. The families of my colleagues told me how it all went and it is incredible that three lives were left in that act and that I would have been saved,” recalls Patiño.
And he added: “God saved me and I stuck to him much more from that day. I thank him for what I have and because I am miraculously alive”.
Asdrúbal Patiño was a gregarious. He was in charge of putting steps for his leaders on the mountain, but he was impeccable in his work.
“It was raining. We were at the hotel and we talked about how dangerous it was to go out to train like this. Among the veterans we thought that it was not the day to go cycling, but in the end we went out. We were several ahead. The step was not very strong, but the fact was very unfortunate”, said Patiño, who now lives in Cucuta.
‘Help others’
His story is not very clear and he always apologizes because he hardly remembers those hard moments.
“During the descent, more than one of the group fell off due to the rain. We better crown the slope and that’s where the accident happened, that car caught us head-on, we didn’t have time to react,” he said.
“I broke my left leg, I had a broken abdomen, I also broke my liver.”
And he added: “As far as I can remember, my colleagues told me to get off the floor. I don’t remember the moment of impact very well, but I told them to help the others, that I was fine, but that was a lie, I was shattered and the pain was unbearable, my leg was broken”, he recalls.
“I broke my left leg, I had a broken abdomen, I also broke my liver and they told me that they also had to drain a lung. I had bruises on my head and a strong blow to my jaw. For all this, I say that I live by a miracle, I do not know why I am alive, ”she declared.
On several occasions the rumors of his death were made known, but the doctors of the Postobón team came forward and gave part of the reassurance, at least that Asdrúbal was alive, in critical condition, but alive. Asdrúbal was in serious danger, always connected to a respirator.
“My mother (Fabiola Nieto) had to travel urgently and was with me all that time. She lives with us in Cúcuta and sometimes we start talking about what happened and she cries, like me, because remembering those moments is very hard and look at all the time that has passed,” said Patiño.
After several surgeries, hard days and painful physiotherapy sessions and God’s blessing, Asdrúbal left the hospital and the team transferred him to the concentration house in Bogota.
“I still remember and I start to cry.”
Under medical supervision, Patiño did the homework, in a recovery he called super painful.
“I returned to the house in Palmira, where I was born, about a year and a half after the accident. The return was difficult. I had many people close to me, who recognized what I had done and they even paid me a tribute, ”he said.
the broken heart
The news of the death of Mora, Patiño and Triana took him by surprise. Nobody told him anything at the hospital and a psychologist was in charge of giving him the hard blow.
“That reaction was very harsh. Imagine, every day sharing with them. In those days, Nestor, when we were on the Tour of Tolima, went to the Magdalena River and brought us fish. It is unfortunate what happened, something that cannot be forgotten, that is very sad, ”he specified.
And he added: “It is difficult, very difficult. My God, it’s terrible when I think about what I went through. I still remember and I start to cry, screwed up that topic for me. That affects me a lot. I see the families of my colleagues who died in that accident on networks and this is the time when what happened seems incredible to me. The truth is, I hardly talk to them, it still hurts me and it’s better not to remember that, ”he said.
He tried to return to cycling, but the accident, as he says, ended his career as a cyclist. He tried to take the machine again, but it did not hit the ball, his performance was not the same and he hung it definitively as a professional, he says, in the Tour of Colombia in 1997.
“Nothing else was achieved. I came back, I ran a Vuelta a Colombia, but no, nothing, it went wrong for me. I kept back, with the policeman who closes the lot, ”she recounted.
Then his life went from bump to bump. She lived in palmyrahe looked for job opportunities, but they were not given to him and he made a drastic decision: to go live in Cúcuta.
The economic problems were making him desperate, because he did not have any help. He was not left with insurance, much less with a pension and since he lived by riding a bicycle and that was over, he had to start almost from scratch.
“About 20 years ago I came to Cúcuta to look for better dividends. I live with my wife, Natalia, and I have a son, Santiago, who is studying chemistry at university,” he commented.
He reported that he rides a bicycle as an amateur, with some friends. He is always aware of what is happening in the country and the world, he listens and watches the races, because he has never, despite what happened, lost his love for the sport.
He works as an employee in a shoe products store. He attends to the public, that’s how he makes a living. He pointed out that he is not rich, but ‘lives to be poor’.
“It is a process that has not finished. It is the day when my head spins and the accident lives present. Overcoming all that, the death of my companions is complicated. Physically I was in trouble. My liver and stomach bother me a lot, but that was what left me that fatal day. Something that I want to forget, that I wish had not happened because it caused a lot of pain, but that is always present and I have no way to overcome it, “he said.
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Lisandro Rengifo
Editor of THE TIME
@lisandroabel
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