Mitch Docker could have been killed in horror cycling accident but it has given him a new focus

MERCIFULLY, Orica-Scott cyclist Mitch Docker can’t remember the horrific, high-speed crash that nearly killed him but he has come out the other side with a new set of goals.

Mitch Docker can’t remember his horrific crash in the Paris-Roubaix eight months ago. Picture: Michael Klein

TONGUE cut in half. Loss of taste. Top lip cut in half. Six teeth broken in half. Fractured eye socket.

It is a list of injuries you’d expect a back alley bare-knuckle boxer might suffer, not a professional road cyclist.

Yet the reminder is there every time Orica-Scott domestique Mitch Docker, 30, looks in the mirror each morning and the light catches the scars on the right side of his face.

Mercifully, eight months after an horrific, high-speed crash during the Paris-Roubaix, the Victorian classics campaigner can’t remember it.

Others will never forget the sound of carbon screeching along cobblestones, the shrieks from spectators and Docker’s suffering as blood poured down his face like strawberry topping on an ice cream.

The YouTube clip posted by a fan who was in the right — or wrong — spot has been viewed only 20,000 times because it’s the sort of thing you don’t want to watch twice.

“When I saw myself in the mirror (for the first time) I was like, ‘This is going to be a very long road. I’m going to look like s---’,” Docker said.

“All my teeth were broken and my main concern was, ‘How am I going to look for the rest of my life?’. You don’t want to look like Shrek.”

The horrific crash on the infamous cobblestones in the Trench of Arenberg during this year’s Paris-Roubaix.

Docker was in the front third of a charging peloton squeezed on to the infamous Trench of Arenberg in April when he slammed head-first onto the 19th century French cobbles at nearly 60km/h.

“Normally when you’re about to crash there’s that split-second of, ‘I’m going down here’ and you know in that instant,” he said.

“But all I can recall is going into Arenberg, the peloton had split and I was thinking, ‘I’m going to try to get across in Arenberg because this is where the race is going’.”

While his parents, Warren and Karen, and wife, Lydia, were several kilometres up the road waiting for him to charge past, Docker was being carried on to a muddy roadside bog.

“The first thing I can remember is being in the mud and my tongue was through my mouth, I could feel my teeth were broken and just the taste of blood,” he said.

“I said to the guy helping me, ‘My teeth, my teeth. What are my teeth like?’ and he was just like, ‘Don’t worry about your teeth’ because he could see everything.”

Mitch Docker crashes in Paris-Roubaix race, April 2016. Pics from Twitter

Docker had an operation on his eye socket that night and, once back in the Spanish town of Girona, his home, there was more surgery to insert screws, stitch his tongue back together and, eventually, fix his teeth.

“At one point I had all the scars and stitches and broken teeth and I’d shaved my head and grew a little mullet and, I tell you what, I had such an offensive look going on,” he said.

“Anyone who looked at you and you gave a quick look back to, they were like, ‘Take whatever you want’.”

Docker’s humour drifts in and outwhen he discusses the crash, as if time has played a small role in numbing the pain.

Indeed, if the accident was a nightmare, he has come out the other side with a clear vision for his future.

The crash that could have killed him has brought him to life. He has a new coach and new goals.

“Those few weeks after was a really good period for me to evaluate where I’m at, in my life and my career,” he said.

“You don’t often get the chance to do it because you’re always moving. I loved cycling, I wanted to be a pro and I had all these goals, but you can lose your way a bit. You get comfortable and forget what your initial ambitions are.

“I thought if I was going to put myself and my family through this — because it could happen again — is it worth it? And if I’m going to do it, not that I wasn’t doing it properly, but I’m going to do it with the right ambition.”

Mitch Docker will approach the big cycling events of the Australian summer with reset goals and ambitions. Picture: Michael Klein

Docker knows a major moment of truth awaits. How will he feel back on European cobbles? What about tearing back into the Arenberg Forest with 80 riders on his wheel doing more than 50km/h?

“I don’t feel nervous about it now, I think partly because I can’t remember and also because it’s ahead of me,” he said.

“Maybe when I’m back racing in Belgium I’ll feel something, or maybe in Roubaix, or maybe I won’t feel it until I’m coming back into Arenberg. I’m sure there’s going to be a moment where I’ll be like, ‘Holy f---!’.”

For now, Docker is preparing his body and mind for the Mitchelton Bay Classic, national championships, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and the Jayco Herald Sun Tour.

“I’m going into next season with a real focus on my goals, Roubaix being one of them, but also the races leading up to them,” he said.

“Here in Australia I want to do something and not just go through the motions,” he said.

“I want to hit these races and really race them.”

Originally published as Mitch Docker could have been killed in horror cycling accident but it has given him a new focus