Boury Bounces Back

Most of us have been in the position of preparing for a race or big ride and running through the potential list of things that might go wrong. We'll mentally tick off forgotten kit, navigational issues, the weather and a million and one other things. I'm willing to bet that not a single person reading this would add crashing into a wild boar at night to that list. That's what happened to Restrap ambassador Thomas Boury, however, with predictably disastrous consequences. On the eve of his return to racing, I took the time to speak to him about the accident, the aftermath and how he got back in the saddle. 

The accident

"I was riding the Les Geants Ultra [on the 15 August]. It was dusk; the start of the first night. This was to be my last race before The Transpyrenees Race. I was coming off a big block of training, but my body was feeling great. I was in first place and feeling comfortable. I crested a climb not long after sunset and picked up speed down the swooping descent. I was being conservative, but I quickly reached 65kph. 

I rounded a sweeping corner to find a family of wild boar crossing the road, lit up by my lights. There was nowhere to go and no chance of stopping in time. I crashed into one and was thrown over the bars. I landed a long way from the bike."

After the initial shock, Thomas got up and checked himself over. He felt battered and bruised, but thought he was probably okay to keep riding. He walked over to the bike, to find the forks folded under the frame. Ride over. 

"I was able to flag down a passing car and I loaded my bike into the trunk. The driver dropped me off at a local fireman's and he arranged for me to visit the hospital."

It was during routine scans in the hospital that Thomas discovered he had fractured his L2, L3 and L4 vertebrae. Surely that meant season over and a long road to recovery?

Family 

It's been a transitional year for Thomas – in many different ways. He became a father for the first time and has been working harder than ever to make a living as a professional rider, supplemented by his work as a freelance journalist in the bike industry. 

"I'm loving being a father. It obviously impacts every part of your life."

I was interested to know whether the crash and having his son had changed Thomas's approach to racing.

"I would say not. When I’m racing I’m racing. I deliberately try not to think about the family too much while I am in the midst of the race. Emotion isn’t useful either way. I don't want to push harder than I'm capable of, nor be over cautious. I think where it has had an impact is around training and my focus. Every time I'm on my bike, it's time I could be spending with Milo. If I'm sacrificing time with my son, I want it to be worth something. Ultimately though, racing means that every minute I do spend with him, I am a present, happy father. I want to set that good example."

Step-by-step

"I was actually quite lucky in my misfortune. The fractures were very minor and to the 'wings' of the bone rather than the structural part of the spine. I spent a long time talking with doctors and they explained that I was okay to ride almost immediately, as long as it wasn't painful to do so. 

I was stretching and doing physio straight away, and back on a static bike after six days. The accident gave me a real day-by-day focus. I would ask myself 'what can I do today that will make a positive difference'? I concentrated on my nutrition, keeping mobile and enjoying the distractions of Milo and freelance work."

Returning to racing

"Eventually I decided I would be good to race The Trans Pyrenees Race. My numbers were actually looking as good as they have all year. In hindsight I think I probably overtrained in the lead up to Atlas Mountain race [Thomas came a credible 6th, but failed to better his podium position of 2024]."

"I think some of that was down to confidence. I didn't have the self-belief and channelled that lack of confidence into pushing harder than I should have. Now, that self-belief has returned. I feel like I did when I first started racing and knew I could do anything."

I still feel the pressure of course, but, I’m a lucky guy to be able to ride my bike. It will be fun and I know what I have to do. It's that simple."

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Good luck to Thomas at this years race. You can follow him on https://www.followmychallenge.com/live/tprno5.

Photo credits:

Rehabilitation images: Agathe Girard

Bike crash and bike check images: Thomas Boury