The Dutch professional cyclist Milan Vader celebrated the first daily success of his career on the World Tour around a year and a half after his horror fall.
The 27-year-old Vader from Team Jumbo-Visma, who was in mortal danger exactly 555 days ago after a serious accident on the Tour of the Basque Country, won the fourth mountain finish on Sunday (October 15, 2023) at the Gree Tour of Guangxi in China Partially and thus took over the overall lead.
“After everything that has happened, especially after my crash in the Tour of the Basque Country last year, this victory is an incredibly special feeling”Vader said after his victory: “It comes from the heart and means everything to me.”
Vader leads the overall standings
On the difficult final climb, Vader distanced himself from Frenchman Remy Rochas (Cofidis) by two seconds. Two stages before the end of the last race of the season, Vader, who is mostly used in smaller races for Jumbo-Visma, leads the overall standings by six seconds ahead of Rochas. Juri Hollmann (Berlin/Movistar) and Maximilian Schachmann (Berlin/Bora-hansgrohe) are the best Germans in 29th and 30th place, 1:10 minutes behind Vader.
Vader fell on a descent on the fifth stage of the Tour of the Basque Country at the beginning of April last year and was then thrown over a guardrail. He suffered serious internal injuries and multiple vertebral and bone fractures. Vader had to undergo emergency surgery and be put into an artificial coma. He made his comeback at the end of September 2022.