Well, cycling sure is full of ups and downs. Just after a nice stretch of good racing I find myself sprawled out on my bed, typing with one hand because my other is in a cast. I fractured a bone in my left wrist and put a two inch gash in my shin yesterday in a pretty nasty crash. The race was a UCI 1.12 in Wervik, Belgium. I made it a personal goal to race aggressive and take part in a few attacks. I was under the direction to race hard for as long as I could, and risk not finishing, instead of just sitting in for the four hours. I did just that.
Now on to what you all want to hear about: the crash. After a hard effort near the front, I sunk back to about 45th position. The peleton bunched up as we glided over some rolling hills about 10km before the feed zone. On one of the slight downhills, I could feel the pack starting to swell and the motorcycle to my left made me quite nervous. I would guess that we were going about 50km/ hour when I heard a bunch of popping and crunching. Everyone ahead of me immediately locked up their brakes and I did the same. The closer I got to the moaning riders on the ground, the harder I squeezed the brake levers. I continued to skid my tires, like a balancing act on ice. About 2 seconds before I went down I knew I wasn't going to be able to stop in time. I hit someone or something and flew head-first over the bars. What I remember next is feeling the exhaust of the motorcycle on my face and then thinking that my shin hurt pretty bad. I sat up and got very scared when I saw my shin bone peaking out of the 5mm-wide gash. I pinched it shut and tried to look away as I awaited medical attention. Every other part of my body felt fine. A nurse came and asked if I wanted to keep riding. Hmmm... I thought. No, I think I'll go to the hospital instead (then she saw my shin). I saw Bernard briefly and he said that the ambulance would take me to the hospital and that he would see me later. I wasn't scraped at all and besides the shin, no one could have told that I had been in a crash. The more time that went by, the more my wrist began to hurt. After stitches and X-rays, I remember a terrible sinking feeling when they told me that I would need a cast on my wrist. I can't begin to describe the disappointment I felt as they plastered my arm.
Hope.
There is a chance I will be able to race before my scheduled departure from Belgium. I'll get more X-rays in a week and then see if a removable brace will work. I may be able to race with some sort of splint or brace, but probably not over cobblestones! I guess this is part of the sport and another experience to live through and learn from. Every up has it's down, and hopefully every down has it's up. Well, I'm down, but definitely not out. Thanks for reading (my one hand is getting pretty tired). Till next time, VR
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