'Like being in a movie' - Valgren on brutal 2022 crash and road to Tirreno stage win

The career-altering moment occurred on the final stage of the Route d’Occitanie in June 2022, when Valgren was bridging across to the breakaway at the early portion of the stage.

On a sharp descent, Valgren misjudged a corner while he relied on his bike computer. “The first corner went really well, the second also amazing, but the third corner comes and all of a sudden I just think: ‘F**k’,” Valgren told The Athletic.

“In that split second, I had two choices: I could either take the corner and brake and then crash, or I could go straight on and just brake as much as possible… I was braking at full gas, went straight into the fence, and fell maybe 10 metres down the mountain.”

Lying at the bottom, Valgren realised instantly the severity of the crash immediately, as rescue crews pulled him back up the slope. 

“It was like being in a movie, you know?” said Valgren. “I was just hanging there looking up. I could see my sporting director, Tejay (Van Garderen), and I was just floating towards him.”

The impact of the crash left the Danish rider with a dislocated hip broken at the ball-and-socket joint, a shattered pelvis, and multiple knee ligament tears including the ACL and meniscus. 

The road to recovery was a long one for Valgren who detailed the sacrifices and commitments he had to make in order to fulfil his desire to return to racing.

“For five months, I went to my physiotherapist in Monaco, Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Valgren.

A return to racing came almost a year later in April 2023 at the Région Pays de la Loire Tour in France, and the Dane would ride his first Grand Tour since the accident at the 2024 Giro d’Italia.

However, the former Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Amstel Gold Race winner in 2018 was enduring the longest spell in his professional career without tasting victory. 

That changed at the recent Tirreno-Adriatico in March when Valgren was victorious on stage 5 from the breakaway, marking the ninth victory of his career and first since the Coppa Sabatini in September 2021.

“It has been dry, so to speak,” said Valgren of the long wait. “But I never lost faith in myself… It’s what I get up for in the morning, it’s still to win bike races… It’s just been f*****g awesome, to be honest.”

“The day was just something special, one of those days where you love being a cyclist. You start to think, this must be how Tadej [Pogačar] feels every day.”

Following Sanremo, when he finished 30th, Valgren’s attention switches to the cobbled Classics with the E3 Saxo Classic, Gent Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix all on the Dane’s provisional schedule.