Pedro Horril🙈lo has been rel💝eased from hospital and is hoping to return to racing, but the Spaniard's chances of making a comeback in the peloton are still unkown. “It would be very painful to have to say goodbye to cycling in this way. But if it is so, then I have to accept it,” Horrillo said at a press conference on Wednesday, having left the hospital nearly six weeks after his horrifying crash in the Giro d'Italia.

“I can only conclude that I am a lucky man,” the Rabobank rider added. “It is a great miracle that I꧑ am still alive today.”

Horrillo fell nearly 80 metres in a ravine when he crashed in the Giro's eighth stage. He was placed in an induced coma for five days, and suffered numerous i🅺njuries, including two collapsed lungs, a complicated open fracture of his femur, and spinal injuries. At the press gathering, he was still wearing a back and neck brace.

Horrillo's first priority was to return home to his family. During his recovery, ♉he said, his number one priority was to "be better and to be with my family again as soon as possible.” But his profession called to him, too. “Soon I began to dream of cycling again. It is a passion. It haunted me to think that I may never be able to compete again, but fortunately they assured me that this question had not yet been answered.”

The 34-year-old continued, “Now my greatest desire is to return to racing. I know I must be patient and not too fast 💃to force things.” His motivation to return is high, but Horrillo is realistic enough to know that it may not be possible.