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The freak accident that nearly killed Australia's Tour de France winner
SEN • July 6th, 2026 1:25 pm
Australian cyclist Cadel Evans is the oldest Tour de France winner post the second World War... 27 years after he nearly lost his life.
At 34 years of age, Evans became the third non-European cyclist in the history of the sport to win the Tour de France, completing his triumph in 2011 to stamp his legacy on the world of cycling.
However, at just seven years old, Evans spent six days in a coma after a freak accident that nearly cost him everything.
Speaking on This is Your Journey – thanks to Tobin Brothers, Evans recapped the time that he was kicked in the head by a foal, defying the odds well before his great sporting achievements.
"Totally, really lucky (to be alive)," he told Sam Edmund.
"It was a depressed skull fracture. A part of my skull was resting on my brain. My chance of living was unlikely, and my chance of living and living a normal live was highly unlikely.
"It wasn't until I was researching to write a book when I read my mother's own experience of this, because obviously I spent six days in an induced coma so I wasn't conscious of any of it.
"It brought me to tears, reading what my mother was going through. That's what happens, and, if anything, the skillset that you draw on... I became pretty good at tolerating headaches!"
Listen to Evans' chat with Sam Edmund below.
