Post Crash Status and Diagnosis

It's been 9 days since the crash.

I saw the orthopedic last Tuesday and the diagnosis is Grade1 shoulder separation (AC ligaments partially torn, maybe slight Grade 2). Nothing broken. He wants me to stay off the bike for a month to let it heal. Riding the trainer is OK as long as the shoulder doesn't hurt. I go back to see him the end of the month for a follow up visit.

I get more and more pain-free range of motion everyday and can sleep through the night without waking in pain. Just taking extra strength Tylenol to help me sleep through the night.

I get the stiches in my knee out tomorrow. May do it myself. Never any problems with the knee, although the muscles above the knee were pretty sore for a couple days after the crash.

I've been riding my trainer everyday since last Wed and doing leg weights every three days. I'm looking at this month as a build period before getting back outside. (almost as if it were January)


OK, now for the important stuff.

How's the bike?

The Easton carbon fiber handlebars were totaled. I cracked the downdrops on both sides.




















Everything else looks to be OK, even the bomb-proof Rolf Vigor wheels were fine. Not even out of true.


Last but not least, SHOUT OUT TO MIKE BUTCHKO, THE BICYCLE PLACE, for mounting the new Bontrager XXX lite handlebars and tuning the racing machine back to super sonic speed.

Shit, I knew I forgot something. Maybe I hit my head too hard during the crash. The biggest Shout Out goes to Luis San Sebastian for saving my bike from the yard-sale vultures, and for putting some elbow grease into the stellar cleaning job. Last, but not least, AND for staying uppast 9:30pm as I got lost getting to his house. What should've been a 25min drive, took me over an hour. Fortunately, Luis helped guide me to his house and I was able to reclaim my bike.

Poolesville: Crash

Here's a quick recap of the 40/50.

Not sure what the others, thought but the first lap was one of the hardest laps I've had to do. Might have been due to not getting a really good warm up. I almost popped a couple times, but stuck with it. Gravel section was pretty bad avoiding all the pot holes and water bottles. About 10 riders pulled off with flats. I also think a couple riders went down.

Second lap seemed to be much slower, although I'm not sure if this was because I was warmed up and legs were feeling better. Same conditions in the gravel section, lots of water bottles and flatting riders.

By the third lap, I was feeling really good, and was planning on moving up towards the front. On the downhill section just past the golf course, the pace really picked up to the lower 30s and then all of a sudden two riders, (Todd Gue and Spencer Beckett ??) in front of me are tangled up and going down. There are bikes and bodies bouncing in front of me. The world evolves in slow motion. I hit my brakes hoping to slow up enough to get around them. Unfortunately, there was no room as the bikes and bodies seemed to take up the entire width of the road. I really couldn't see any gaps to get through. As Todd bounced towards the gutter on the right side of the road, my only escape route was into the gutter. As I hit the one foot deep gutter, I barely missed riding over Todd's head and then hit the dirt embankment with my right knee and right shoulder. I cartwheeled a couple times before coming to a stop. Sitting in the grass, I tried to assess what damage I'd done. I had a huge gash on my right knee and my right shoulder was hurting. I checked for the tell tale signs of a broken collarbone. Fortunately, there was no bumps along the collarbone, but there was a painful bump in the area where the collarbone connects to the scapula. So, I'm sitting there kinda daized, and just trying to stay calm. And I see Luis San Sebastian, who was working as a rode guard. Thanks for taking care of my bike. I'll call ya to arrange to pick it up.

As I'm sitting in the grass, I look down and realize, I don't have my right shoe on. WTF? I lookover at the bike about 10 feet to my left and see my shoe with blacksock cover is still attached to the peddle. I also hope I'm not sitting in any poison ivy, fortunately I wasn't. I also look over to the right farther down the road, and there is another EMT truck sitting in the right hand lane just before the right hand turn, taking care of another downed rider. Turns out, he was on a flyer in the 4/5 race and solo crashed while trying to get some water. He was in pretty bad shape.

Anyway, the EMTs took me to ShadyGrove Hosp, I think I got there around 10:30ish and I didn't get discharged until around 1:30.

Damage

• Knee wound: open to the knee cap. 1 internal suture, 4 external sutures
• Shoulder; nothing broken, but possible Grade2 shoulder separation. I'll see my orthopedic early this week for official diagnosis and treatment plan.

Not sure how long I'll be off the bike, but I will be riding my trainer once the pain in my shoulder goes away.

Post Note Addition: I forgot to thank Manny and TonyG for asking if I was OK as they raced by.

Post Note Addition: Officially diagnosis: Grade 1 Shoulder separation will keep me on the trainer for at least a month.