SUPPORT STRUCTURE

Epstein Barr needs treatment and rest so that the body can heal itself, but it’s also important to consider treatment for the mind. When giving an account of how he dealt with EpsteinBarr virus, Beñat Intxausti makes a point on how important the support of his teams and the company of his girlfriend were to overcome the condition. “My girlfriend is the person I have to thank the most,” he stresses. “She has stood by my side during this whole situation, overseeing me 24 hours a day for almost three full years.”

The case of Esteban Chaves is paradigmatic. For the Colombian, mononucleosis was the nadir of a long period of adversity. “Perhaps the pressure for the results, perhaps the injuries I suffered, perhaps the people I lost on the way or the combination of all that led me to a point at which I hated cycling,” he says in the ‘Behind the Smile’ documentary released by Scott Sports in September 2019. The Colombian decided to spend his recovery time at home with his family and friends to bounce back. “I had hit rock bottom. Now I’m grateful I can ride for seven hours and enjoy it. And I couldn’t have done it without my family.”

One picture tells the whole story. It was taken in the Giro d’Italia 2019, and shows Chaves addressing the media while his parents merge into an intense, emotional hug. It was not captured atop San Martino di Castrozza, where the Colombian rider won a stage, but rather two days before in Anterselva, where he was the runner-up to Ag2r’s Nans Peters. That’s the moment when Chaves and his family realised he had overcome EBV - and the personal life crisis that coincided with it.