Baroncini (UAE) escaped death, but is already back on the bike two months after being in a coma

Baroncini had a great season. After winning the SUPER 8 Classic last year, the 2021 world champion continued with an excellent classics block and the Giro d'Italia, after which he even took the overall victory in the Baloise Belgium Tour. A relatively quiet summer came to an end, after which the fall season began in the Tour of Poland. However, that is where disaster struck.

In the third stage, he crashed hard in the final. He went down together with classification leader Paul Lapeira, but the Italian was the worst off. A broken neck vertebra was diagnosed, but he also had multiple fractures in his face. As a result, he was kept in an artificial coma, from which he only awoke two weeks later.

The operation on his face lasted more than 11 hours, and according to team manager Mauro Gianetti, “miracles were performed.” “His face was disfigured, and you can't imagine what the oral surgeons were able to do. They did something incredible in an operation that lasted more than eleven hours.” Baroncini later went into detail about his crash.

“It was a fairly tight corner, and I went off the road. I hit a wall and immediately felt pain in my ribs because I was having trouble breathing. I could move my legs fine, so that wasn't a cause for concern, but I could feel that something was wrong with my face.” The Italian came very close to suffering permanent damage to his eyes.

An incredible story —a story of pain and physical suffering, but also of luck. And the story takes another turn, because 2.5 months after the accident, Baroncini is already back on his bike. Teammate Juan Sébastian Molano went on a training ride, and the 25-year-old Italian was already back, as can be seen on Instagram. So it seems we don't have to worry about next season.