In a dramatic tweet, former Tour de France winner Egan Bernal spoke for the first time after his serious training accident in his native Colombia and several operations.
"After having a 95 percent chance of becoming a quadriplegic and nearly losing my life doing what I love most, today I want to thank God, the clinic, all of their specialists who accomplished the impossible , my family and all of you," Bernal wrote on Twitter on Friday.
In a publication on Instagram, Bernal's first photo from the clinic with a neck brace and tubes was also visible.
He was due to have another operation on Friday.
This emerged from the seventh report from the La Sabana University Hospital near Bogotá.
Multiple fractures and injuries
"The patient is at this moment in a phase of recovery or a tertiary trauma," said the message, which had already pointed out the critical situation.
"For this reason, tomorrow (Friday) he will undergo two operations, which are secondary procedures and are not life-threatening." These are the surgical treatment of a fracture of the right hand metacarpal and fractures in the dental and jaw area.
According to media reports, 25-year-old Bernal crashed into a stationary bus on his time trial bike on Monday.
His team Ineos-Grenadiers initially only confirmed the accident and that Bernal was responsive and stable in the hospital.
As it turned out later, he had suffered a femoral fracture, an open fracture of the kneecap and injuries to the thoracic spine.
Bernal underwent multiple surgeries and was scheduled to stay in intensive care for at least three days.