One Clydesdale’s Journey

Okay, I know that I’ve been really bad about posting all summer long and I apologize about that. The weekends just aren’t long enough and I always seem to run out of time. But I promise to try and get better at this.

So my training and racing season were going along quite nicely until the 3rd of this month when everything came to a screeching halt.

I crashed my bike while I was out on a training ride and I took the brunt of all the damage.

All summer long I was making most of my training and racing goals with the exception of running, but then I think that will always be my Achilles heel. But more on all of that in a future post.

On the 3rd my goal for that training ride was to hit 32 miles per hour on a flat. Previously I managed to top 30, so I was pretty confident that I would be able to that night… and I did.

I know that I hit that mark both from my cycle computer and the fact that one of my riding companions told me he was doing 30 and I was pulling away from him.

The problem with that; is that as I was cruising along at 32, down in the aero bars, something caused me to veer to the right a bit and I ended in the gravel on the shoulder of the road. I tried twice to get back on the blacktop, but the lip between the gravel and blacktop was too big for me to get the bike over it.

As I was contemplating what my next move would be my front tire dug in and I flipped.

The next thing I remember was lying alongside the road being asked if I was okay and having my legs completely covered with mosquitoes; this happened on River Road in Brookfield, if you aren’t familiar with that area it is all swamp and wetlands around there.

A huge thanks and shout out by the way to the 2 guys that stopped to help me; Chad Weber who I train with all the time and Brent Emery whose group we were riding with. Chad and his wife Renee along with my beautiful bride Shelly helped me from that point on.

So the bike made it out with only a small ding in the front rim and Wheel and Sprocket (where I got the bike and have all my work done) was able to true up the wheel within less than a millimeter of perfect. They figure I should be good for a little while on it. Good thing since I want to upgrade those down the road.

As for me, I didn’t make it out of that incident quiet as good. I ended up with a level 3 separated shoulder, 3 broken ribs, numerous bruised ribs, road rash on my legs, arms and face, and just to make things annoying a sprained thumb on the good arm side making both hands useless for a few days.

I also busted up my helmet to the point where it won’t even fit right anymore, but after a CT scan there was absolutely no head trauma.

And due to that, I can honestly say that the helmet saved my life!

And one more shout out to everyone else (Ray, Julie, Chad, Renee, Leah, Dave and Andy) that I train and race with for all chipping in together to get me a snazzy new helmet so that my noggin is continued to be protected!

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training