Jaco van Gass speaks out after crash left Paralympic hopes hanging by a thread

Somewhere in France there's a very relieved Renault driver as Jaco van Gass wrote the latest chapter in his improbable story.

In Tokyo he struck Paralympic cycling gold 12 years after he lost his arm in Afghanistan. Just one week before his title defence, Van Gass was left hospitalised after a training run on the roads outside Paris ended with him spinning across the tarmac when a car pulled in front of him.

“I was totally heartbroken, I was like this could be my Paralympics done before I've even started," said van Gass, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games.

"I was so worried, but I was quickly in an ambulance and in hospital and the medical teams could not have done more. I woke up the next day so stiff and sore and it was very hard to even comprehend I'd be riding.

"I wasn't worried about the cuts, but my knee was really badly bruised but within two days I was back on the bike. I did a session at the velodrome and then I knew I'd be okay, after all, it was only a Renault!"

Van Gass, an adventurer who has walked to both poles and is currently climbing the highest peaks on seven continents, is used to travelling on the hardest roads.

However, he joked he could have done without British teammate Fin Graham breaking his world record in qualifying, meaning he had to snatch it back just five minutes later.

The two went head-to-head in an all-British final but Van Gass had his measure to win the men's 3000m individual pursuit title again, the first of three events he has entered