Alvaro Hodeg has had a rough few years since suffering a devastating incident in December of 2021 when a car driver hit him while he was driving his motorcycle. His WorldTour career didn't end that day, but it might as well have.
The Colombian rider shattered his lower leg and hand in the incident, just as he was preparing to start a three-year contract with UAE Team Emirates after four seasons with Quickstep.
Now, he's making a comeback with Team Medellin, improving day by day, and aiming to come back to the WorldTour.
Hodeg, winner of races like the Koksijde Classic, Münsterland Giro, stages of the Volta a Catalunya, and Tour de Pologne, was one of the top sprinters in the peloton before his crash.
After it, he was afraid he would never walk again, much less ride a bike. It took numerous surgeries, including a nerve graft in his hand, and months spent in the hospital before he could walk. Hodeg was still miles away from the finish line, however. He spent all of 2022 trying to rehabilitate his injuries, only walking again for the first time five months after the wreck.
Hodeg managed to take a second step and get back on the bike. He raced for two more seasons, but he was a shadow of his former self, still suffering from knee pain and numbness in his hand that persists to this day. Racing at the highest level was demoralising.
"I wanted to stop my career last season," Hodeg tells Cyclingnews before the Maryland Cycling Classic.
"The last year with UAE was super difficult with all of my knee and hand problems. I wasn't really enjoying my career. It was more about suffering," he explained.
"I wasn't enjoying my bike, and it's what I love. So I came back and I decided to stop. But Team Medellin came to me and asked if I wanted to try racing more easy, more relaxed, near home while still trying to recover."
Rather than suffering through the sport's top races, Hodeg, now relieved of the pressure, began to flourish. In his first race with the team at the Tour of Hainan, he cracked the top ten on the opening stage. Then he represented Colombia at the Pan-American title and won the race in a bunch sprint.
Resplendent in the white jersey of Pan-American champion, Hodeg confirmed that he made the right choice to keep racing.
"To come back and win the Pan American championship is like a trophy for me," Hodeg says. "I can say, it was the best victory of my career - after one year in the hospital, to come back and win, it's like a miracle."
Another victory came in the Tour de Panamá and, last month, he scored more top finishes while racing with the team in the Gateway Cup criterium series.
"It was super nice to be there," Hodeg said of the races in St. Louis. "I said to the guys that we should come next year with more training. This year was more about - not fun, because we always ride for the victory, - but you must have a bit of practice. [Criteriums] are like another kind of cycling. So next year we will try to come and win."
Hodeg might have started as the top favourite for the Maryland Cycling Classic, which has more climbing than the 28-year-old prefers, but he has found his ambition to rejoin the top of the sport.
"I really wish to come back [to the WorldTour], but it can only happen if I recover completely from my crash. I'm trying and doing everything to recover, but it hasn't been so simple. If I can do it, I will try to come back, because I think it's where I belong."
The motorcycle wreck is not completely behind him, with scar tissue limiting his range of motion in his wrist and three fingers still numb from the nerve damage, but finding success with his Continental team has rekindled his joy on the bike.
"It was a tough moment, but I'm happy just to ride the bike and enjoy the moment and be alive," Hodeg concluded.
