“I thought it was over for me”: Steff Cras testifies about a terrible fall in the Basque Country

The cycling spring was colored by impressive performances by Van der Poel and Pogacar, but unfortunately also overshadowed by several falls. One of the heaviest victims was Steff Cras. His Tour of the Basque Country ended, just like Evenepoel and Vingegaard, in the descent of the Olaeta. “I thought I was suffocating,” he tells his story.

A perforated lung, a broken rib and eight broken transverse processes (the short, protruding pieces of bone on the vertebra, ed.). That was the diagnosis on April 4 for Steff Cras.

It wasn’t until about three weeks later that Cras was able to sleep in a bed again for the first time. Striking: riding on the rollers was faster than lying down.

Until then, he had to “sleep” in a chair, bought especially for that purpose. Teammate Dries Van Gestel helped carry the furniture upstairs to the apartment of Cras and his wife in Herentals.

The rehabilitation will take some time and yet Cras is already looking ahead. Normally he will certainly make it to the Tour and that gives a lot of courage.

“It’s also been much better since I got back from Spain. I can do everything myself again and since last week I can cycle on rollers again. Training outside is not yet an option.”

If I had flown into the concrete block nearby, I might not be here anymore.

Steff Cras about the fall in the Basque Country

Those who saw photos from after the fall may have noticed the rider who appeared to be in the concrete gutter. “As if I was in a bathtub,” Cras can now laugh.

But he crawled through the eye of the needle. “If I had flown into the concrete block nearby, I might not be here anymore.”

Anyway, the first moments were awful, especially because of the collapsed lung. “For the first half minute I couldn’t breathe and I felt like I was suffocating.”

“It’s over, I thought. But after 30 seconds or so, the lung opened a little and I got just enough air to breathe.”

Cras cannot identify one cause for that fall. “I’m thinking of a combination of the bad road surface and the very high speed. In any case, the descent was poorly marked.”

“They could have easily put something over that concrete gutter. Actually, nothing was indicated and nothing was stated in the communiqué the day before.”

The course as a whole also plays a role, he believes. “In the past, the stages in the Basque Country were super difficult and you therefore automatically entered such a descent with a smaller group. There was less fighting to be in position.”

“Now the run-up is often too easy and you get into a sprint to be the first to go down the descent.”

Cras also points out the responsibility of the riders themselves and the enormous accelerations. “In the descent of the Tourmalet, for example, we rode almost at 100 km/h and there were still riders who caught up.”

“Sometimes I was almost released on a descent simply because I couldn’t catch the pedal, while others could. Maybe something needs to be done about that too.”

Back to Cras himself. The driver will make it to the Tour de France, but in what condition?

“It all depends on when I can cycle outside again. If that were possible next week, for example, I will certainly still be in reasonable condition, otherwise it will be slightly less. But I know what it is, a disrupted preparation.”

Cras is referring to the Dauphiné, where he suffered a cracked elbow after a fall last year
suffered minor fractures, but still made it to the start of the Tour.

A Tour from which he, as the highest ranked Belgian, also disappeared due to a careless spectator. So he has had more than his share of bad luck.

“It haunts me, yes. I actually had the hope that this year would be the year of the breakthrough.”

Bad luck does follow me, yes. I actually hoped that this year would be the year of breakthrough.

Steff Cras

“After a good winter, I had set my sights on the Basque Country and certainly the Ardennes classics. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out, so I now hope that my breakthrough will come in the Tour.”

Breakthrough may not be the right word anymore. After all the bad luck, Cras still rode the Vuelta last year and finished eleventh, with two ninth places in tough mountain stages.

He receives all the support from his team in the preparation for the Tour. Although his failure was also a downer for the team, because TotalEnergies can make good use of the points.

In any case, Cras feels good with the French formation, but his contract expires this year. Will he stay? “We’ll see what the Tour brings!”

The hunger is clearly great, if only bad luck does not materialize…