Cycling
Out of the Saddle: Path to Road Rash Recovery
Yesterday during an “easy spin”, a friend and I decided to do a few sprints. On the second sprint, I dropped in to my 53-13 and jumped off to a quick lead. I took a glance back to see my friend closing the gap, so I jumped to the last cog, got out of the saddle, and started to bound away. On the first pedal stroke I heard what sounded like ghost shifting and on the second stroke I went down under my own torque, the chain having missed the 12 cog altogether.
As soon as I went down I slid on my right side then flipped to the my left, where I continued the slide. The guy behind me was too close to get out of the way and so he hit me. He and his bike went down on top of me, but I completely cushioned his fall.
The total damages of this little mishap are an elbow with 2 staples in it (after sitting at the hospital for 4 hours), lots of road rash (roughly 10% of body covered), tattered bibs/jersey/shoes, damaged shifters, ruined saddle, and perhaps a bad derailleur. My friend’s bike seems fine, and I’d say that my bike is OK overall. I dropped it off on the way to the hospital so that it could begin receiving treatment as well!
So now I’m on the path to a speedy recovery. Today I am extremely stiff. I’ve been given orders to only use soap & water to clean the wounds and polysporin as an ointment. I can remove the staples in 10-14 days, and hopefully by then I’ll be able to get back on the bike.
Discussion
Post a comment