Saul Raisin (born January 6, 1983 in

Dalton, Georgia Dalton is a city and the county seat of Whitfield County, Georgia, United States. It is also the principal city of the Dalton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Murray and Whitfield counties. As of the 2010 census, the ci ...

) is an American former professional

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

with

UCI ProTeam UCI most commonly refers to: * University of California, Irvine, a public university in Irvine, California, United States * Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body for the sport of cycling UCI may also refer to: * Uganda Cancer In ...

Crédit Agricole.

Career

Raisin began racing

mountain bikes A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, which m ...

at 13, and moved to road bikes when he was 17.Rich Tyler, Remarkable Twist of Fate, ''Ride Cycling Review'', Winter 2006, page 168.Kristi Daughtridge
A Long Road: Saul Raisin's story
, ''Spinal Column: The magazine of the Shepherd Center'', Fall 2006, p12-13. Raisin had a good start to his professional career with Crédit Agricole in 2005, coming 37th in the

Tour de Suisse The Tour de Suisse ( en, Tour of Switzerland) is an annual road cycling stage race. Raced over eight days, the event covers two weekends in June, and along with the Critérium du Dauphiné, it is considered a proving ground for the Tour de France ...

, later having the best result of his career with a 13th place in the Int. Österreich-Rundfahrt (or

Tour of Austria The Tour of Austria (german: Internationale Österreich Rundfahrt) is a stage cycling race held in Austria. From 1949 to 1995 it was a race for amateur cyclists, turning into a professional event in 1996. In 2005 and 2006 it was organised as a 2 ...

). He then went on to win the King of the Mountains jersey in the

Tour de l'Avenir Tour de l'Avenir ( en, Tour of the Future) is a French road bicycle racing stage race, which started in 1961 as a race similar to the Tour de France and over much of the same course but for amateurs and for semi-professionals known as independen ...

. In early 2006 Raisin won the third stage of the Le Tour de Langkawi and ended the Malaysian Tour placed eleventh overall. In 2003 Saul won Best Young Rider at the

Tour de Georgia The Tour de Georgia was a U.S. professional road cycling stage race across the state of Georgia. The race began in 2003 and was contested six times until 2008. It was one of the three events in North America ranked as Hors Classe (2.HC) stage rac ...

. At the 2006

Tour of California The Tour of California (officially sponsored as the Amgen Tour of California) was an annual professional road cycling stage race on the UCI World Tour and USA Cycling Professional Tour that ran from 2006 to 2019. It was the only event on the ...

Raisin came 17th overall. He raced the

Milan–San Remo Milan–San Remo (in Italian ''Milano-Sanremo''), also called "''The Spring classic''" or "''La Classicissima''", is an annual road cycling race between Milan and Sanremo, in Northwest Italy. With a distance of 298 km (~185.2 miles) it is t ...

in March and on April 4 was racing in the first stage of the

Circuit de la Sarthe The Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, also known as Circuit de la Sarthe (after the 1906 French Grand Prix triangle circuit) located in Le Mans, Sarthe, France, is a semi-permanent motorsport race course, chiefly known as the venue for the 24 Hou ...

. Two kilometres from the finish Raisin clipped a wheel, crashed and landed on his head, breaking his

clavicle The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the rig ...

and hip.

2006 crash aftermath

At the hospital in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

, France, doctors took hourly CAT scans which showed that an

intracranial hemorrhage Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), also known as intracranial bleed, is bleeding within the skull. Subtypes are intracerebral bleeds ( intraventricular bleeds and intraparenchymal bleeds), subarachnoid bleeds, epidural bleeds, and subdural bleeds. ...

had formed in Raisin's brain. A

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

operated to relieve the

pressure Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and e ...

and had to remove part of Raisin's right temporal lobe, though Raisin's autobiography contradicts this. Raisin went into a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

, emerging six days later. The hemorrhage and surgery caused significant weakness on his left side and marked

memory loss Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use o ...

.Shane Stokes
Raisin racing to recover
''CyclingNews'', August 10, 2006. When he was stabilized he was flown from France to the Shepherd Center in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. He stayed in the hospital for four weeks, going through extensive therapy - including re-learning to walk and eat. Afterwards he continued his therapy at the Shepherd Center outpatient program, Pathways. Saul was not permitted to race for at least 18 months after his accident because "another blow to the head could be disastrous."Shane Stokes
The legacy of the crash
''CyclingNews'', August 10, 2006. In August 2006, Raisin moved from indoor training on

bicycle rollers Bicycle rollers are a type of bicycle trainer that make it possible to ride a bicycle indoors without moving forward. However, unlike other types of bicycle trainers, rollers do not attach to the bicycle frame, and the rider must maintain balance ...

to riding outside, and in late November, Raisin completed an 8 hour, 200 kilometre ride from

Chatsworth, Georgia Chatsworth is a city in Murray County, Georgia, United States, specifically in the Dalton, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 4,874 at the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Murray County and the site of the coldes ...

Brasstown Bald Brasstown Bald is the highest point in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is located in the northeastern part of the state in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the border between Towns and Union County, Georgia, Union counties south of the city of Hiawassee ...

, crossing 8 mountain passes. In January 2007, Raisin attended the Crédit Agricole team training camp in the South of France. In November 2007, the Crédit Agricole team doctors stated that they could not release Saul to race. His neurological and psychiatric tests were fine, but the risk to him should he crash again is too great. Raisin's accident and initial recovery are chronicled the book Tour de Life: from Coma to Competition'' () which he authored with

Dave Shields David Shields (born April 24, 1967) is a Canadian retired ice hockey center who was an All-American for Denver. Career Shields was a high-scoring player in junior hockey, ending his tenure as the league's second leading scorer. He joined Denver ...

. On September 27, 2014, Saul Raisin married Lindsey Bush.

Raisin Hope ride

During the 2007

, Saul rode each stage before the main race as a promotion of his Raisin Hope Ride, a charity ride that raises money for The Shepherd Center, Camp Twin Lakes, The Brain Injury Association of Georgia and the USA Cycling Development Foundation. The first Raisin Hope Ride was held on March 31, 2007. It is Saul's intention that the ride be run annually.Saul Raisin
Raisin Hope Ride
''SaulRaisin.com'', April 2, 2007. Event Info
2007

2008

2009

Palmares

Tour de Langkawi The Tour de Langkawi is a multiple stage bicycle race held in Malaysia. It is named after the archipelago Langkawi, where the first edition started and finished. The race has been held annually since 1996, primarily in February. It usually con ...

- 1 stage (2006) *

- Mountains Classification (2005)

References

External links

Saul Raisin's official site

Saul Raisin's Raisin Hope Foundation site

Crédit Agricole cycling team website

Shepherd Center
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raisin, Saul 1983 births Living people American male cyclists People from Dalton, Georgia Sportspeople from Georgia (U.S. state)