Just 17 months ago, American Saul Raisin of the French Crédit Agricole team lay in a coma in a French hospital after crashing during a stage of the Circuit de la Sarthe race.  His parents caught the next plane to France not knowing if Saul would still be alive when they arrived.  They soon learned that if he did survive, he'd be paralyzed for life.


After many months of rehabilitation, Saul Raisin today will once again pin race numbers on his jersey, competing in the US Pro Time Trial Championships.  The Saul Raisin story, told so beautifully in the book, "Tour de Life: from Coma to Competition" (written with award-winning author Dave Shields) is getting brighter and brighter.  Indeed, life is good for Saul Raisin.  The book is published, he's back on the bike, and he'll be marrying Aleeza Zabriskie (sister of David) three months from today.

Anticipating the media demands on Saul's time this weekend (he'll be interviewing with reporters from CNN and "Inside Edition"), cyclingfans.com checked in with Saul last Saturday for a phone interview.  Saul couldn't have sounded happier.  The interview, "interrupted" once or twice by a playful Aleeza, touched on Saul's emotions surrounding his race today, the book, his Crédit Agricole team, his upcoming wedding, the French, and what he needs to do in order to be cleared to race a full schedule in 2008.  After informing Saul of Tour organizer ASO's threat to invite some national teams to the Tour, we asked Saul to name some teammates for a U.S. national team.  Would he pick Dave Zabriskie, Aleeza's brother?  Saul was understandably reluctant to name such a team, lest he forget someone.  But he's such a good sport, he played along anyway.  (If he forgot to name someone who feels he should have been named, blame us, not Saul!)


Click here for our exclusive Saul Raisin interview.