Pablo Lastras' career ended abruptly. The 39-year-old rider suffered a bad crash at the Volta a Catalunya and seven months late he is finally beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.

The recovery has been very hard.

"I've been home for 17 days after spending two and a half months in a hospital in Pamplona. N​now I'm waiting for consultation with my surgeon and want to get rid of the last crutch to begin the third phase of my rehabilitation," he told Cadena Ser.

"During the first five months, they have taken care of me as if I were to be discharged and ride a bike. Today I realize that it is very difficult.

"I have done almost 1600 races, some 635,000 kilometers during 15 years." But now the targets have changed. "My daily challenge is different. If all goes well, I can go back to being a normal person in January 2017.

"I've had harder crashes but not as brutal. The impact was like falling  from the third floor. I smashed my hip at 60 km / h and broke the head of the femur and my pelvis.

"I went up to take the bike after the crash and the leg did not respond. That was the end of my career."

Lastras remembers when he realized the true gravity of the injury "I came to the clinic and I realized it was serious, only one surgeon in Spain was able to to do the surgery."

Nevertheless, Pablo Lastras is thankful to cycling for what it has given to him

"If I were to be born, I would be a cyclist. The important thing in life is to choose and stay with all that this sport has given me."