Audrey Cordon-Ragot has opened up about the stroke she suffered last month, revealing the terrifying symptoms and missed diagnoses but also indicating it will not hold her back as she embarks on the final two years of her career.
As she was preparing to travel to Australia for the Road World Championships, the French road race and time trial champion began to feel, as she has recounted in an interview with L'Equipe, unsteady, almost drunk, with ringing ears and tingling limbs.
She spent the day in hospital but the doctors were unable to work out what was wrong, suggesting diabetes and prescribing anti-dizziness medication before reportedly encouraging her to ride her bike the following day.
Cordon-Ragot reveals how she told her husband, off the cuff, that she felt she might have had a stroke, but confirmation would only come when the French Federation ordered her to undergo an MRI scan in order to clear her for travel to Australia.
"If the Federation hadn't insisted, I'd have got on the plane on the Sunday and it could have been really dramatic. Without anticoagulant, I'd undoubtedly have had another stroke, and this time a big one," she said.
"If I hadn't had that MRI, I'd have scrapped the time trial at Worlds but I'd still have taken the plane for the road race and I'd have come out handicapped, or I wouldn't have come out at all. I really was very lucky."
Cordon-Ragot describes a post-diagnosis period of immense shock and fear, made worse when she logged onto social media, where she encountered a host of negative comments accusing her of being fickle and disrespectful for missing Worlds.
"Normally I have a thick skin but that affected me enormously. I couldn't believe people could criticise at that point without knowing anything," she said.
"Those comments pushed me to speak publicly about the stroke at a time in my life when I didn't necessarily want to open up. I wasn't ready to speak about it. Having to because of those people, that affected me a lot."
Cordon-Ragot feels that even when the word stroke is mentioned, there is perhaps a lack of awareness, and she has voiced her desire to change that. She wants the world of sport to take the issue more seriously but also wants to see improvements for those who don't have such easy access to medical help.
"Not everyone is so lucky. Most people are left in the dark, no one takes care of them, and thousands die. I find that terrible," she said. "I want people to know they're not alone, that it can happen to anyone. If my example can help people, I will have won the lot."
Cordon-Ragot has made a strong recovery and, assuaging what she desired as her 'worst fear', she will be able to resume life as a professional cyclist in 2023.
She underwent a heart scan shortly after her diagnosis, which identified a hole in the heart as the cause of the stroke. On Thursday, she underwent an operation to close it up, and by the start of November, she'll be allowed back on the bike to slowly wind up her winter training.
"I feel really good now," she said. "Science is incredible. All there is to do is recover and then start training. I can't wait."
Cordon-Ragot says she wants to carry on racing through to the Olympics in her native France in 2024 and revealed she will leave Trek-Segafredo, with the expectation that she will join the new B&B Hotels women's squad.
"I'm super excited. Even before my stroke, I felt the need to throw myself into a new adventure. I've reached a turning point in my career and I know exactly when I'm going to stop. I'm lucky to be able to decide that," she said.
"Seeing as that was almost taken away from me, I feel even more motivated at the idea of making these two last years the best of my career."
