Jo Baker in Wellington Hospital with more than 14 broken bones and still convinced she would be “back home next week”.
Jo Baker in Wellington Hospital with more than 14 broken bones and still convinced she would be “back home next week”.
As critically injured Central Hawke’s Bay triathlete Jo Baker lay in a Wellington hospital bed, she remembers promising her husband and daughters she would never cycle race again.
Jo was recovering from surgery for a life-threatening traumatic brain injury, having crashed from her bike during a race. She had also broken 14 bones on the right side of her body, from her pelvis to her head.
Her injuries were so serious she had been airlifted by rescue helicopter from the accident site on a rural Central Hawke’s Bay road. The chopper flew her to Hawke’s Bay Hospital. A further flight rushed her to Wellington.
Following by road were Jo’s husband Neil and her two daughters Laken and Dani.
They had to pull over on the way to answer a call from a Wellington neurosurgeon. Jo’s brain injury was life-threatening, he told Neil. “I need your permission to operate.”
“That’s the worst part for me,” Jo now says. “What they went through.”
Not a great way to get a new hairstyle - Jo’s incision from the brain surgery that saved her life.
The accident happened two and a half years ago on a regular cycle club race. On Nichols Rd, Waipukurau, going downhill at a speed of about 40kmh, Jo was racing in a bunch.
“It was a dreadful day I will never forget,” says Jo. “Well, I actually can’t remember the crash but I can remember parts of the race - I was having such a good race - and I remember what came in the weeks after.
“They tell me I hit a pinecone. I don’t recall anything.”
While still in Wellington Hospital, Jo began to have a change of heart.
“I decided that when I turned 50 I wanted to represent New Zealand in the 2023 World Triathlon Age-Group Championships.”
Jo asked her husband and daughters’ permission to go back on her promise.
The girls said “Mum I know this is what you enjoy doing. You could deny yourself, and still get hit by a bus tomorrow”.
“My neurosurgeon said ‘yes, 100 per cent get back on your bike. Exercise is important, and fresh air, and you’ll be miserable if you don’t’.
“So the Worlds has been my goal ever since. And I was going to be really pissed off if they were in New Zealand as I wanted to travel.”
Jo was in luck; the event is to be held in Pontevedra, Spain, in September.
But the road to Spain has been hard-fought.
Jo’s elbow had to be reattached with hardware.
“Six weeks in three different hospitals, then home and a lot of physical therapy. When I was able to go to the pool, that became my happy place. With Michele Hayes keeping watch, I had my own lifeguard. I strapped on an aqua belt and walked up and down the pool...that was all I could do as everything was broken.
“In the pool though, my brain injury symptoms just went away. That made such a difference. Eventually I could put my arms out and walk a length. I went to the pool every day, it took away the pressure of being housebound.”
From the pool, Jo advanced to cycling.
“I was completely fine, I had no recollection of coming off so, although I was cautious, I was fine. Neil was nervous, I think he watched me more than he watched the road.
“I am back doing the Sunday bunch rides but I pick my position...
“I ride on Neil’s wheel. It’s the wheel I know and trust. It makes him happier too that I am there.”
Training to qualify for the Worlds, where she will do a 1500m swim, 40km cycle and 10km run, Jo has spent “lots of time in the pool, lots of time on the bike”.
“Cycling is still my strength. The running is very hard on the body. I started really slowly, walk running. Running still hurts.”
Jo Baker went back to thank her neurosurgeon, Kelvin Woon, a year after her near-fatal cycle race crash.
Jo travelled to Christchurch to qualify for the World Age-Group Champs, and that achieved she had to face fundraising for the trip.
“Unless you are elite, there’s no funding available from Triathlon NZ. Costs are estimated to be around $9000.
Jo planned a fundraising raffle and tentatively approached a few CHB businesses to sponsor prizes. She was astonished and gratified at the support she received.
“I was aiming to sell 200 tickets starting on Facebook, then sit outside New World, and sell the rest. I sold 500 straight away, I don’t even have to sit outside the supermarket. I can’t get my head around it! I’m going to do two draws...under police supervision of course.”
Another fundraising idea cropped up as Jo talked to friend Serena Parkinson, who with her husband Donald runs the Civic Theatre in Waipukurau.
Serena said “we need to find a movie we can screen as a fundraiser”.
The movie they found, Jo says, is perfect. The Last Rider is about American cyclist Greg LeMond who fought back from severe injury to win the Tour de France in 1989.
“His story is so close to mine. It’s not just about cycling it’s about overcoming everything. He came back and won the Tour de France. I’m not going to come back and win, my aim is to finish...to run the whole 10km, to not come last, to finish with a smile on my face and make my supporters proud of me. I will probably cry. It’s about not giving up on what you love.”
The Civic Theatre will screen The Last Rider on July 30 at 2pm. Jo will be interviewed onstage by CHB’s “coach” Tim Ewen. Drinks will be donated by sponsor New World Waipukurau, and refreshments will be available.
Greg LeMond is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Road Race World Championship twice and the Tour de France three times. He is also an entrepreneur and anti-doping advocate. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Jo’s surprised and delighted by all the support she’s received, from loyal friends, sponsors and donations right through to the community who provided food and baking to sustain her family while she was in hospital. She’s always been a staunch community supporter and Cycling CHB committee member and sees it as perhaps the support she’s shown being turned back in her direction.
“The support has helped so much. If I wake up in the morning and don’t feel like getting up to go to the pool I think of everyone who bought raffle tickets and think ‘Jo, you have to get up.’ Going public has made me accountable.
“I feel like I want to take everyone to Spain with me. Of course Neil will be there as my main supporter and also competing in the AquaBike. Our daughter Laken is going to be backpacking and will meet us there - she will stream the event live to our other daughter Dani, who is unable to make it, and will post on Facebook so my supporters can ‘be there’.
“My accident was a big thing, not just for myself and my family but for the cyclists who were racing with me when it happened.
“People say to me ‘don’t you feel lucky?’ No I feel bloody unlucky that I came off. But I feel lucky I’ve had a full recovery. I broke multiple bones in my pelvis, collarbone, ribs, neck, facial bones, nose and jaw, my elbow had to be reattached and severe road rash on my hand needed surgery. I had a brain injury...I had been one month in my new job at CHB College and everything I’d learned in that month was pretty much gone. The support from my new work colleagues was really great, especially as I had to return to work on a very gradual return-to-work programme.
Finishing the swim leg of a triathlon, just before qualifying for World Champs in Spain.
“The enormity of it didn’t really sink in until a year later. I was still in denial and when I went back to see my neurosurgeon Neil asked him ‘can you explain to Jo how close she was to dying?’ And he said ‘very close’.
“I get really cross when I see people cycling without wearing a helmet. Do that for yourself and your family at the very least.
“We only get one life, enjoy it. We don’t know what’s around the corner so do everything you can to follow your passion. I want people to know not to give up. I turned 40 in London, now I get to turn 50 at a triathlon in Spain, where will I be when I turn 60? Life’s an adventure worth fighting for.”
“I would really like to thank everyone who has been involved with my recovery in some way.
“My family who I love so much, the local St John Ambulance crew, the Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter, all the doctors and nurses in Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Central Hawke’s Bay, everyone involved in my rehab, my work, my sponsors who have helped with my fundraising, my awesome friends and those who I continue to make memories with.”
The details
The Last Rider - the story of cyclist Greg LeMond, one of the most inspiring comebacks in sporting history. Screening at the Civic Theatre, Northumberland St, Waipukurau, 2pm, Sunday July 30.
Jo Baker’s fundraiser for the World Age Group Triathlon Champs in Spain, September 2023.
Tickets by direct payment to J Baker 06 0781 0071556 72 ref: name and code: movie. Or pay by cash at the Civic Theatre before Thursday July 27.
