Nothing broken, thank goodness, as I catapulted off my bike into I think was an area of wood shavings - right before the huge two foot wide tree that had been cut down. I had the wind knocked out of me including a few choice words; "F**k, F, F, ..." Nobody around except for a little brown snake warming himself next to the little sapling I squeezed for dear life when I tried to assess my bodily damage.
My team director from last year was great as he jumped out of - I don't know what follow vehicle to look after me until the ambulance came.
My assessment of bodily damage: banged up pretty good all over, forest/woods rash as I didn't hit the road, left knee - smack on the cap - had a sharp pain.
We sports fans all know how crazy athletes can be... I carefully sat up; stood up and asked for the bike. Whoever was there with me all said stay put, yada-yada-yada but I wanted to continue my bodily assessment. Shawn righted the handlebars and slowly - off I went. O yea, the right hip-swollen; the left knee-ouch, still feeling a bit off on my breathing but I could hold on and pedal. My teammates were sweethearts and came back and rode me to the finish.
The young EMTs in the ambulance took a little drive for nothing - sort of. So I waited about 15 minutes for them to get back to the start/finish to clean me up and give me their assessment. They told me I was their first bike race crash victim.
I was then squeezed and handled with great care. Of course, I want to ride so I have opted out of the idea of stitches for the little laceration on the knee. Sure, I would say a little fat was showing and its a good cut, but I am hoping the butterflies do the job. Now I need to replenish the first aid kit with the necessities. Maybe some dudes I know should carry a first aid kit with them when they ride. Period.
After Trdina's slice above from mountain biking, My cut is NOTHING. And I was trying to figure out when I could ride?! Damn. He was riding the road bike (easy) in three days. Hmm. Mini-me cut and the hematoma, ouch.
"Forest rash". Silly self portrait (probably good being blurry) as I was able to get a flattering shot of the "lack of booty (butt)" and all the high intensity racing and training hasn't made much of a dent in the loss of belly fat so I had to crop out my belly.
Thank goodness it is my favorite weekend for sport. We watched some awesome golf and I cannot wait until Sunday. It will be blustery. I have faith in Tiger. If anyone can come from behind, it's my man Tiger Woods. Then it is Paris-Roubaix. In 2001 when OLN aired the Classic races live, I sat for three hours watching my favorite version of PR. 1994 is another great race with Tchmil's win.
