Kiwi cyclist George Bennett 'lucky to be alive' after being hit by car

  • 17/04/2018
Bennett recovered from the incident to finish seventh.
Bennett recovered from the incident to finish seventh. Photo credit: Getty

Kiwi cyclist George Bennett says he's "lucky to be alive" after he was hit by a car on the eve of the Tour of the Alps in Northern Italy.

Bennett was doing recon of the Giro d'Italia's stage-16 time trial with teammate Koen Bouwman when he was struck by the vehicle just down the road from the first stage of the event.

"I was going pretty fast on the time trial, doing a recon for the Giro," Bennett told Cyclingnews

"I was riding fast and a car was coming the other way," he said. "It didn't see us and it turned left across the road, and I went straight into the side of him and I went over. Luckily I went over the car, but I ripped the roof rack off with my knees.

"I was really lucky with how it happened. I'm lucky to be alive, I think. It could have been me in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.

"It is pretty close to the anniversary of Scarponi and that's pretty much what happened to him, and my friend Lowndsy [Jason Lowndes] died. It was a bit of a shock and this morning when I woke up, I definitely knew that I'd been hit by a car."

Bennett was fortunate to not suffer any serious injuries and recovered to finish seventh on the first stage of the five-day mountain event.

"Generally, I'm fine. My left knee I was a bit worried about and my left arm.

"The good thing is I'm sore everywhere, but nothing is really bad. I'm very happy, not just for this race, but for the Giro - there were a few panicked staff at Lotto-Jumbo last night."

"I just trained really hard at altitude with the boys. You never know how you're going to react coming down from altitude, and for sure they always talk about a bad day that you'll have and hopefully it's not tomorrow."

Newshub.