Ατύχημα ο Mahe

Speed bump in Munich

After the journey I have had over the past four years, I was hoping the ‘excitement’ was behind me and I could have a ‘boring’ year training and competing without incident.

So far this year, that is pretty much what has happened, I have only missed a couple of sessions when my back flared up for a couple of days in March. Training has been going really well and in the last couple of weeks I have made some good gains at higher rates culminating in a very good race in Amsterdam last week. This has set me up well for the World Cup this weekend and the Olympics in six weeks time.

Unfortunately the ‘boring’ times couldn’t continue and yesterday as I was out riding my bike I had another collision with a car, which has meant the past 24 hours spent in hospitals rather than out on the lake.

Yesterday afternoon I was out doing my session on my bike as usual. I had ridden about 25KM and was just thinking of heading back toward home. I came around a roundabout turning left, I saw a car stopped at the give way waiting to go straight through and thought they were stopped waiting for me (I am a little more cautious after last years experience in Bled) Unfortunately they hadn’t seen me and as I was about to go in front of them they pulled out and hit me. The car impacted on my right foot and then hit the back wheel of my bike sending my bike skidding sideways as I fell straight to the road landing on my right shoulder and hip. I got off the ground feeling shaken up and winded through my ribs, I could immediately feel my right shoulder, ribs and hips but when I looked at my arms and legs they got away with only a few grazes. I thought I would be Ok and could continue my ride. I picked up my bike, which seemed to have very little damage, bar the back wheel, unfortunately it wasn’t rideable so the lady that had hit me kindly offered to drop me home.

The language barrier meant we couldn’t understand each other very well so I was left trying to work out how badly I was hurt. During the trip I felt like things were improving and by the time we arrived home and switched details I thought I had got away pretty scot-free. Unfortunately as the adrenaline wore off and I had time to get organised and ice my wounds, reality looked a little more serious. My foot was sore but going to be fine, my right hip was very sore to touch but seemed like it was just impact and bruising but my right shoulder and top left rib were pretty painful and I didn’t have much movement in my right arm, with our physio suspecting an AC joint problem, so it was off to the doctor to get it checked out.

As the night went on the pain increased and I think the lack of food coupled with the pain and shock made me feel pretty queezy. There were a few stops outside for fresh air and when the doctor examined me and pushed the sore points I was eyeing up the nearest rubbish bin.

We were sent off to the hospital and were amazed with the German efficiency as we saw the doctor, had xrays, ultra sound scans, got all the results and at 1am as we were leaving were told we had a 9am MRI date and appointment with the specialist straight afterward this morning. Amazing service.

The Nausea continued most of the night.  The x-rays took double the time as I had to keep sitting down and have a cold flannel applied to my neck. Thankfully after the x-ray our quick thinking physio Craig bought me the magic cure (a Coke Cola) and 10minutes later I was right as rain.

Initial diagnosis is that thankfully nothing is broken, I have a level 2 (level 1 is mild, 2 not too bad and 3 and beyond very serious) AC joint injury. Basically the AC joint is where the collar bone joins the shoulder blade at the point of your shoulder, through the impact of hitting the road these two bones have separated slightly, stretching the ligaments (the next level is a rupture which thankfully hasn’t happened). This means I am likely to be back on the bike (initially on a stationary trainer) within the next day or so. Thankfully my lower body is fine and my hip doesn’t inhibit movement.  I should be back in the boat and fully training somewhere between a week and three weeks, depending on progress.

I had a very poor sleep last night and was in a lot of pain but have woken up this morning feeling much better and have already gained a lot of movement back in my arm. The World Cup starts tomorrow and while at this stage I am a long shot to start, if I keep improving and the specialist clears me I might even be back racing tomorrow. Ill be positive and aim for that and worst case Ill be back to normal training next week, which shouldn’t effect my Olympic build up too much.

I am hoping this will be the final ‘exciting’ moment of this tour and I can get back to normal training and Olympic preparation shortly. The aim is to have a normal preparation and hopefully avoid any more crashes between now and then.

I am thankful that I got away without any serious injury and am confident in my bodies healing powers making this just a small speed bump in the road rather than a detour or road block. I won a World Championship gold 8 days after my bike crash last year, so it may still prove to be an unfortunate lucky charm!