WIPEOUT!!!!

I am sitting now in a coffee shop (4/13) in Cañon City, CO feeling, well, really, really crappy.  The goal was to ride the 100 miles to Pueblo, and then maybe ride a bit more.

Right off the bat I felt pretty good.  The ride was a gradual downhill and the scenery was great; moving along a river with looming rock cliffs separating cow farms, it was really nice.  It was a little chilly, but the sun was out and I was excited because the forecast had called for thunder storms (we got some crazy thunder, wind and rain the night before in Salida).  But everything looked good along the ride, and I knew I was making some good time.  I stopped in a tiny town called Cotipaxi for a breakfast burrito and some more snacks for later around 8am, switched up audiobooks (just finished Deception Point by Dan Brown, on to Consent To Kill, by someone) and headed back on the road.

The road was super windy, had very narrow to no shoulder, and because of the wind the night before, there was a good amount of rubble along the way, having tumbled off the rock cliffs hugging the road.  On a few occasions I skimmed off a rock and had to grab the handel bars tight to avoid wobbling out of control.  My speed was pretty good because of the slight down angle, an I was just enjoying things as the sun began to break the crisp morning weather.

Then, bang, I hit a small rock as I re-grabbed the handel bars after removing my glove.  Not a problem, the bike wobbled a bit ad the BOB trailer sure didn't help keep things under control.  But I gripped tightly and tried to settle things.  But just as I started to get the thing under control I hit another one.  This time things just went wild.  The trailers weight overpowered the bike and began to fishtail.  The front tire just shot back and forth, so violently in fact, that I lost my grip with one hand.  I knew I was finished.

I went flying.  I literally careened over the right handel bar, into the air, and just crashed into the side of the road.  I could feel my bike crashing behind me as I tumbled, head over heels another few yards before coming to a stop in a ball, my head and knees touching in a heap in the tall grass.  I could not get myself to move as I heard a truck pull up.  I thought I had broken my neck.  As two people rushed out of the car, I was able to slowly topple to my side and start to move my limbs around to make sure I could still function.  My knee hurt, my hand felt like it was missing, and my head was a bit in pain as I adjusted my helmet which was now pushed over my face.  I looked down and saw my tights ripped open at the knee, blood pouring out, brown with dirt.  I looked at my left hand, it too was bleeding something awful, and I could not move my fingers.

Another car pulled over, a nurse, and she checked me over.  I was able to get up just fine and help get the bike and trailer onto the truck.  They drove it, with me in the nice nurse's car, to Cañon City where I could get to the hospital.  The pain began to set in in the car.  My hand, more directly, my left thumb was  in so much pain.  My right knee and elbow hurt, and my neck was stiffening up like crazy.  I checked in quickly to the hospital where they cleaned me up, took some x-rays and bandaged me up.  My thumb is broken, almost all the way through the top portion, leaving my entire hand swollen and in tons of pain.  the cuts and scrapes are alright, but they will swell and my joints are going to be in some serious pain.

I checked out, and a really nice woman from the hospital drove me and my bike to the shop to get fixed. She then allowed me to hold on to her truck while she went back to work and that's where I am now, in a coffee shop, in pain, and trying to figure out a couple things:  do I stay at this woman's house for the night and see how things feel tomorrow?  Do I hitch a ride to Pueblo to crash and see how things turn out? Or do I head back to the hospital and re-admit myself because my head is starting to hurt and my neck is killing me.

Going back to the hospital.  I'll finish this later.

So, it's the next day (4/14), I am resting up in a hotel in Pueblo, CO, taking a day off to recover from yesterday.  After a CT scan we found that nothing too serious happened to my head or spine, just some pretty bad muscle strain down the neck.  I go all these drugs to take with me, but I'll probably just stick with some basic ibuprofen and get some easy stretching today.

What an ordeal!  I knew something along these lines was bound to happen at some point, I just hope that this little injury won't make riding impossible.  As of right now, my hand is pretty swollen, and putting pressure on my palm, the area where I would put all pressure when riding, just kills.  So, I am hoping with the rest of today, I will be able to hop back on tomorrow and get some good miles in.  My neck and head are feeling a good deal better, but I still need to be pretty careful because riding is a bit of a strain right on those aras that are sensitive.

So, keeping my brutal scrapes in check, icing up the hand, stretching the neck and back, and just relaxing.  Tomorrow I am going to get back on the bike and see what happens!

Here's to overcoming adversity!