Cyclist, 77, survives ravine fall for three days by drinking wine

The 77-year-old Frenchman was on his way home with his shopping when he took a disastrous wrong turn and ended up spending a few freezing nights alone with only wine for company

An elderly cyclist has told how he plunged 40 metres down a ravine and survived for three days — by drinking wine. The unnamed pensioner, 77, was on his way home from a routine shop when disaster struck.

Travelling from La Grand-Combe in Gard to his home in Saint-Julien-des-Points, Lozere, he somehow missed a turn and and went hurtling into the steep ravine in the Cevennes, north of Montpellier.

But the tough old-timer refused to give up, even when trapped at the bottom of the gorge with only his bags of shopping for company. And he kept himself going by just sipping on bottles of wine from the shopping trip.

His scant items included a few bottles of wine, which, miraculously, “somehow were unbroken in the fall”. For three freezing nights, the pensioner tried to flag down help, shouting desperately to the road above, reports Cycling Weekly.

With no luck and no way out, he rationed his wine to stay alive, battling cold, hunger and exhaustion. On the third day, salvation finally arrived when road workers heard his faint cries for help.

After spotting his abandoned bike, they looked down and saw the pensioner still conscious among the rocks. Firefighters and a helicopter were scrambled to rescue him and whisked him to hospital in Ales.

Astonished medics have hailed his escape as nothing short of a miracle. Dr Laurent Savath, chief medical officer of the Hérault fire department, said: “He’s a miracle. In the cold and damp, with almost no food or water, he’s incredibly resilient.

“He is really tough. He fell into a stream several times trying to scramble back up, so was at risk of hypothermia.”

Now safely discharged from hospital and recovering at home, the plucky cyclist is said to be in good spirits and surely more grateful than ever for the “few bottles of wine” that kept him going.

In another recent astonishing tale of survival, a Brit fell 11,000 feet when his parachute malfunctioned during a tandem skydiving experience on his “dream holiday” in the Nevada desert in the US.

Mitchell Deakin, 24, suffered a fractured pelvis, broken ribs, a punctured lung and kidney damage – but thankfully pulled through and recovered from his terrifying ordeal.

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