Former Paris-Roubaix winner Stuart O’Grady has been hospitalized after he endured possible epileptic seizures at the MotoGP in Valencia, Spain. O’Grady had just climbed off of Casey Stoner’s Ducati and was ready to be introduced to several business people before collapsing.
According to Cycling South Australia executive, Max Stevens, O’Grady bit his tongue before collapsing in front of the MotoGP starting grid.
“Casey Stoner started to interview Stuart and introducing him to these people” explained Stevens to AdelaideNow. “Stuart couldn’t answer the questions and then he collapsed. They called the medical team and luckily he had the doctors on standby for the race.”
O’Grady had just kicked off training for the first ProTour event of the 2010 calendar, Australia’s Tour Down Under.
“He woke up in hospital and they’re going to do a series of tests,” elaborated Stevens. We’ll know more in the next couple of days. Ann-Marie, his wife, is at home in Monaco and we’re getting all this information through third parties.”
Further tests will provide insight into the cause of the cyclist’s collapse. This isn’t the first time O’Grady has had a seizure. Years ago the Australian suffered from a brutal mugging with a resulting blood clot in his brain that led to seizures. It is possible that this incident may be linked to his previous problems of nearly a decade ago.