Summer catch-up with cyclist Jason Creswell

Jason Creswell plans to finish what he started last year and complete the Trans-American Trail ride across America this May. Photo/George Novak

Fractured vertebrae and ribs, a punctured lung and a small brain haemorrhage hasn't stopped Jason Creswell's determination to complete the Trans-American Trail ride.

The Tauranga cyclist plans to head back to San Francisco to complete the ride across America in May, almost one year since his accident.

Creswell, 36, was cycling in America at the beginning of June last year when a vehicle struck him from behind. He suffered nine fractured vertebrae, four fractured ribs, a punctured lung and a small brain haemorrhage and faced a $150,000 medical bill.

Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times from London, Creswell said he hoped to be back in Tauranga for good before Christmas 2018.

"I am also heading back to do the ride again in May and have scheduled nine weeks to get across," Creswell said. "Feeling a little nervous but plenty of time to get everything together."

Creswell left Tauranga in 2004 to live overseas and had planned a "summer adventure" cycling in Britain and the United States as a "last hurrah" before moving back to Tauranga.

It was day 25 of the Trans-American Trail when the accident happened. Creswell had stopped for lunch to eat his peanut butter and jam sandwiches.

He got back on the road and was approaching the highest point of the route at Hoosier Pass in Colorado when an SUV crossed into the shoulder of the road and hit him from behind at 88km/h, he said.

Seven months on from the accident, Creswell is trying to establish a working visa for his fiancee Nadia who he had proposed to last year.

"I wanted to propose at the top of the Mount at sunrise, but Nadia isn't particularly a morning person, so the alarm sounded at 5am each time before being swiftly muted," Creswell said.

Instead, when the couple was holidaying in Taupo and visited the Craters of the Moon thermal area, Creswell popped the question "among the steam and snow".

"She said yes, and we then went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland to thaw out. I'll get her up Mauao some other time," he said.