Zanardi airlifted to hospital after serious road accident with handbike

Racing legend Alessandro (Alex) Zanardi was transported by trauma helicopter to the hospital of Siena in Italy on Friday. The double CART champion and quadruple paralympic champion was involved in a serious training accident on the public road near Pienza.

At the age of 53, Zanardi is still training as a handbiker for the upcoming paralympic games. During a training session on Friday it went wrong when he got on the wrong side of the road and rolled twice before he hit a truck with considerable speed.

Press agency ANSA reports that Zanardi was first taken by ambulance to a location where a helicopter could land. From there he was transferred to the hospital. Exactly how the Italian is doing is not yet known.

The coach of the Italian Paracycling team was able to tell Corriere della Sera that it was a 'terrible' accident. "We went through a bend in a not too difficult descent. Alex lost control of his bike, rolled over twice and crashed into a truck. The collision was terrible, it's very serious."

The special career of Zanardi

Zanardi made his debut in 1991 in Formula 1 for the Jordan team. However, he never managed to break through with limited material in the following years, so he left for America, where he caused a furore in the CART-championship (predecessor of the current IndyCar) in the mid and late 90s.

After another failed adventure in Formula 1 with Williams, he returned to CART in 2001, where he lost both legs in a major accident at the Lausitzring that season. Miraculously he came back, not only on the racing circuits, but also as a paralympic champion.