Gloag (Visma | LaB) shares freaky moments during long recovery: "I fainted in the shower"

Thomas Gloag waited a year to return to the peloton after a lengthy recovery period due to a collision in training. This was no surprise, considering what the young rider from Visma | Lease a Bike had to endure. Immediately after his return to the peloton, on the tour of the Czech Republic, the 22-year-old Briton managed to win.

"It just takes as long as it takes," was Gloag's down-to-earth conclusion to Cycling Weekly. "I got hit by a car, and my right knee broke in several pieces. I had a full knee surgery at that time, spent six weeks in a wheelchair, had to learn to walk again and teach my body to move again. The biggest problem in the end was that my muscles were so badly affected that it was just bone at that point."

After a month and a half, the talented racer was allowed out of his wheelchair. "After six weeks of not using your quadriceps, my muscles had shrunk considerably, and I couldn't bend my knee for six weeks. Two weeks later, I still couldn't bend them."

Gloag shocked by decreased muscle mass: "I passed out in the shower"

The moment the cast came off, Gloag could do more things again. Like taking showers, which created a freaky moment. "The first time I saw my leg at that point, I fainted in the shower. I bent my knee, my friend caught me, and I was unconscious for about a minute when I saw how much muscle mass I had lost. I had to wait another four weeks before moving it, which was about the worst thing that could happen to me."

From then on, Gloag, a trainee on the Dutch team from 2022, had the chance to work on his rehabilitation. "I don't think I've ever done anything I was so proud of just because the amount of progress you see daily is remarkable. There's a visual progress you can track, which I found rewarding."

Gloag found confirmation even the day before the win: "I had some tears in my eyes"

In late July, the cyclist could pin on a back number again. In stage three, the queen stage, of the Czech Tour, Gloag also managed to record his first professional victory, winning solo on the uphill finish. And yet, he already had confirmation of his triumphant comeback the day before. "In stage two, I felt more rewarded," he explained. "There was a big fight for the breakaway, and then there were two demanding climbs. We did this climb twice, and the first time we went up the climb, I remember being a little emotional as we came down."

And that emotion didn't come out of nowhere. "I had some tears because I finally felt like a cyclist again. That was a bigger moment for me than the win the next day. You would think that comes when you win, but it was the day before, just because I wanted to prove that I could ride hard on the knee again in a race situation."

His comeback was more than successful. What are his main goals for the rest of the season? "My goals right now are really to get some consistency. I've been struggling with it for as long as I can remember, just being able to do consistent training and consistent races. As bizarre as it sounds, that's the main goal right now because you can't beat consistency if you want to move forward."