Michael Matthews can still see the mark left by the stitches on his face when he looks in the mirror. The Australian cycling ace "didn't know if I would be back after what happened".
A horror training crash left Matthews requiring immediate surgery in Italy on the open fracture on his left arm. Within days he was on his way to Belgium for another surgery - this time, on his right arm, after the same crash left him with slashed tendons, a broken wrist and a broken thumb. That's before we even get to the sinus fracture in his face.
But now Matthews is back on the bike in a tale of resilience, with the Canberra product returning to racing at the Tour Auvergne - Rhone-Alpes as part of a Team Jayco AlUla line-up.
And if Matthews is yet to reply to your message of support following the injury suffered in March, give him a little more time. It took six weeks just to regain most of the movement in his hands.
"Just trying to enjoy this now," Matthews said. "I didn't know if I would be back after what happened."
Matthews' last season on the World Tour started with victory in the Gran Premio de Castellon in Spain in late January - the 44th win of his decorated 17-year career.
But then the crash during training in March left him in need of multiple surgeries just months after Matthews recovered from a potentially life-threatening pulmonary embolism discovered at an altitude training camp in Italy.
"I'm really excited to be back racing with the boys again. It's been a tough few months since my crash and a lot of rehab and training to get back on the start line," Matthews said in a team statement.
"It hasn't been easy, but I had the goal with the team to be back for this race and to be ready for the Tour.
"Just to be here is already a big motivation for me. I've done a good block of training in the last weeks leading into this race, obviously racing is different, but that is what I love doing. I can't wait to pin a number on again and line up with the guys, especially in the [team time trial]."
Luke Durbridge, Hamish McKenzie, and German rider Jasha Sutterlin loom as key cogs in Jayco AlUla's team time trial bid.
"It's great to see Michael Matthews back racing after such a bad crash," team sport director Mat Hayman said.
"It's a credit to him how hard he's worked to get back, it was a big injury and he's put in all the rehab work and all the effort to get back in time for the Tour de France."
Matthews lines up alongside teammate Luke Plapp in the eight-day stage race in the Alps, which includes three hilly stages, one team time trial, and four mountain stages.
"It's going to be great to have 'Bling' back racing, and I'm really looking forward to teaming up with him to have a great week in France," teammate Luke Plapp said.
