Update on Jesper Skibby


Jesper Skibby returns - overtrained and overstressed, not epileptic

Saturday morning May 4, eighteen days after his collapse, Jesper Skibby was standing on the starting line of the Dutch semi-classic race Ronde van Midden-Zeeland.

He rode one hundred kilometres at the head of the peloton before calling it a day after the passage of the Zeeland-bridge.

The first diagnose, epilepsy, was incorrect; 'Over stressed and overtrained' is what it was all about according to Skibby and TVM's directeur sportif Cees Priem.

Skibby explains it like this: "I have had a good start of the season, the first goal was Tirreno-Adriatico. There I crashed and got a head injury. After that, to make up for lost time, I trained very, very hard and after Fleche Wallonne I collapsed, the body and the mind could take no more."

Now he's back again, again with time to make up, but he has learned from his mistakes:

"I must listen to my body more carefully. My biggest mistake has been that people have told me that I was sick and I didn't listen. This has been an important lesson for me."

Three years ago he was almost killed in a bad crash in Tirreno-Adriatico, came back surprisingly fast and won stage 5 in the Tour de France in Evreux. But after the collapse in April this year he seriously contemplated to retire:

"To come back is terribly difficult. The question is if it's worth it. My family comes first, cycling second, but my wife tells me that I can't quit like this. I can still go on for two more years at least if I calm down a little."

Jesper Skibby is 32 years old and has been a pro since 1986. He has shown himself to be a a class rider with 19 wins in his professional career, among them stages in the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.