Track cyclist Paternoster does not remember her fall

Paternoster has a memory lapse

"I have a complete memory gap from the evening before the race to the morning after, when I found myself stretched out on a hospital bed," said the 23-year-old cyclist in an interview with the "Corriere della Sera". Paternoster injured himself in a mass crash in the elimination race on 13 August. Among other things, she suffered a triple fracture of her right collarbone.

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Paternoster has also crashed heavily before, for example in Berlin in 2018. To stay in control, you have to mix competitive madness, instinct and reason, she explained. Without madness, you lack the courage to push yourself into a 50-centimetre gap at 55 kilometres per hour.

The madness seems to be too much for her mum. "She doesn't watch the competitions, leaves the TV off and hopes that I come home in one piece," reported the northern Italian from Cles near Bolzano.

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