O'Grady collapses after Mamola hot lap

Veteran American Randy Mamola has scared literally hundreds of luminaries, sportspeople, competition winners and media over the last few years on the Ducati twin-seater MotoGP bike, but never before has he claimed a 'scalp'.

Australian cycling star Stuart O'Grady collapsed after a hot lap with Mamola at last Sunday's season-ending grand prix at Valencia, with the three-time Olympic champion and Tour de France stage winner ending up in a local hospital for a battery of tests, including an MRI.

The 36-year-old has since been given an all-clear by medicos, but it hasn't sullied the thrill of the ride.

"The ride around the Valencia circuit was unbelievable," O'Grady said on foxsports.com.au. "I've jumped out of planes, been in a Russian fighter jet, a V8 Supercar, the works -- but the twin seater Ducati blows them all out of the water!

"I have never come close to the experience of hanging on for your life.

"The braking on those bikes had my feet coming off the rear pegs, and my butt way off the seat, the acceleration meant I needed my full strength to hang onto the machine and not get flicked out onto the track in front of 90 thousand fans.

"It was something I will never forget and would do again tomorrow if my body could handle it."

After the hot lap, O'Grady's heart was pounding and his blood pressure through the roof, but he didn't think much of it: professional cyclists regular push their bodies to the limit.

"But then I started having blotchy vision and 20 minutes later I had a seizure and collapsed," he said. "It was possibly the extreme 'hyper tension' or maybe an old scar on my brain from one of my previous crashes but there's no use speculating or guessing, it's happened and that's that.

"It takes more than one lap to get rid of me."