Bellis, 21, was in an induced coma for almost a month after the accident in Italy but is now out of the coma and communicating with doctors, his relatives and friends who have been visiting him at the CTO Hospital in Florence.

A spokesman for the British Cycling team, which is giving media updates about his progress, gave the latest news earlier this week.

'Jonny is doing really well since the last update and is communicating by writing messages on a white board,' said the spokesman.

The spokesman added that the medical team would soon be considering transferring him to London for treatment to continue his recovery.

Jonny, who turned pro with the Saxo Bank team this year, suffered fractures to his skull and jaw in the crash which happened near the town of Qurrata in Tuscany on September 19.

He has been receiving visits from relatives and many of his team mates in recent weeks.

Among them have been his Great Britain national team mate and fellow Manxman Mark Cavendish.

'He's out of the coma now and the doctors say that he's come as far in six weeks as most patients do in 12,' Cav is quoted as saying on cyclingnews.com website.

'He's lost a lot of muscle — his legs look like Michael Rasmussen's — but he's doing great.'

Michael Rasmussen is a notoriously skinny Danish cyclist who used to ride for the Rabobank team.

By coincidence it is a current member of the Rabobank squad, Kai Reus, whose story will offer encouragement and hope to Jonny and his family as he makes his recovery and, in the longer term, aims to return to cycling.

Reus, a 23-year-old Dutchman, won stage two of this year's Tour of Britain but in July 2007 he suffered serious head injuries in a training accident and, like Bellis, suffered a blood clot in his brain.

Reus's stage win in the Tour of Britain in September this year was the culmination of a long fight back from his injuries which had left him in a coma for 11 days.

The example of Reus's recovery as a beacon of hope for Bellis was cited by Daily Telegraph journalist Daniel Friebe in a recent article about the Manxman on the bikeradar.com website.

Friebe, who was the ghost writer of Mark Cavendish's autobiography Boy Racer, wrote the piece under the headline 'Jonny Bellis and a story of hope'.

There is also the inspiring example of double Tour de France winner Alberto Contador who spent 10 days in a coma after suffering head injuries in a crash in the 2004 Tour of Asturias in his home country of Spain.

Contador has a scar running from one ear to the other across the top of his skull as a result of a brain operation.

Just eight months after the accident he returned to racing.