From wheelchair to racing bike: Paul (65) narrowly survived a bicycle fall last year and yesterday rode the World Gravel Bike World Championship: “Motivation to cycle was my salvation”

A year ago, Paul Willems (65) was still in a hospital bed, unsure whether he would ever be able to return. Today he cycles uphill and over gravel roads again, as if he has never done anything else. Last weekend he was even at the start of the Gravel Bike World Championships in Maastricht, Netherlands. An incredible comeback by a man who narrowly escaped death after a banal fall at ten kilometers per hour. “The nerve in my left leg was damaged and my muscles were incapacitated, but I am a stubborn person.”

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