Season over

Season Ending Injury

This is a long one, and it’s merited. First of all, I do want to send a warm thank you, high five, or hug to all the riders that contacted me during this time. I love this cycling community and I really do know who my friends are now.

Having a season ending injury is a bummer, a real bummer. This is the first time in my entire life that I have been laid up with an injury that has disabled me from being able to actually use my leg. I haven’t blogged in a long time because I have been doing videos instead, and since I’m stuck to my bed and bored as hell, I decided to break down my side of what happened.

So let me break down how it went down. Race number #5 of the FSC was at Oleta, and I was kinda happy that I was gonna be racing on a course that was flat. Historically, I have done better at this race than any of the other races as an Expert. I knew I still wouldn’t have a presences at the front, but I did expect myself to do better than the other races.

The start was a little tight for my liking, so I made the Executive Decision to get into the top 4 at the start. The main reason was it was virtually impossible to pass anyone for the first section of the course. I have held back on all the other races at the start because I’m not strong like to years ago, and I didn’t want to be the person to let a group get away because I was too slow. So with the factor of me doing my best at this course, and the course being really tight at the beginning made me get to the front.

The start went as planned, and I got in the top 4 with Luis and Adolfo in front of me, with a ZMotion Rider in front of them. As we went across the street I was nervous because the gravel rocks where coming, and it has always been hard to stay upright if you come in at the wrong angle. I got onto the gravel rocks right behind Adolfo, and this happened.


Someone slammed into my shoulder and hip, and I put my foot down to keep from being sideswiped. I had a really sharp pain go up my calf, but I was able to keep the bike upright.

My bike kept moving forward, so I made an attempt to put my foot back in the pedal and go forward, but my leg was hurting like a bitch. I thought it was a case of being hit so hard in the muscle that you have a cramping sensation, and those wear off after the adrenaline kicks in.



My leg was so paralyzed that I had problems putting it back in my pedal, and I went from 4th to last in a matter of 50 meters. Then I thought, “Great, just muffed up my good start”. I kept pedaling, and the more I pedaled, the more pain I was in.

I went into the first section practically pedaling with one leg, and once I got to the 1st steep climb I knew my leg was would not allow me to pedal up it. So I dismounted at the bottom of the climb, and the first thing I did was look back at my calf, and that is when I knew this was very, very serious.

There was a 3-inch gash in my leg about 2 inches above my Achilles heel. The blood was already gushing down my leg to my shoe. That is when Andrew Lee’s brother asked me if I need help because I was limping at this point. Carlos from ProedgeBiker and his wife Danielle jumped in to help me get back to the GoneRiding Trailer. As soon as Terri saw the cut, she said, “You have to go to the hospital bub”. Carlos gave me makeshift wrap to keep the pressure on the cut, and Mrs. P. came over with my car and went to the hospital, and this is what basically happened.

The cut went all the way threw my leg muscle, and cut part of my tendon.


I got 9 stitches,


a foot splint,


crutches,


and 30 days off my feet. It took about 3 hours, and before that time was up that I left the hospital I got over 25 texts, facebooks messages, or phone calls from riders concerned about my injury. What I did not get was “ANY” form of contact from the rider that did this.

I have become really good friends with all the Riders on my team which is Alex Bike Shop. Even their wives, girlfriends and other friends have contacted me to wish me well. Jorge and Adolfo have gone way out of their ways to stay in contact with me almost everyday to check my progress, and I forever thank them for that. I also thank the other riders that have contacted me by email, and facebook.

I was conflicted to talk about this, because this can be considered a touchy subject if it is not looked at objectively. But after more than 8 days I feel like the “Statue of Limitation” has come and gone and now I should discuss it. I guess my question for you to think about is if you were the cause of the accident, “Would you give a courtesy call”?

If you are a fan of my blog from 2007 & 2008, then the one thing you can say is I have a Pet Peeve about passing. “Noone”, and I mean “Noone” has ever had a problem with me letting them pass in a race. I have had some problems with riders letting me pass, and I won’t rehash it but all my peers have agreed with me on that issue, and that the rider in question really does lack sportsmanship. I never heard anyone confront this rider, and he pretty much went around unchecked. For that I lost a little bit of respect for some the riders in my category for not promoting fair play, but ultimately I have lost respect for the rider for not having “Strong Sportmanship”. To this day I have never rode with him when I saw him at any mountain bike park. I can only stand by my principles and integrity as an athlete and man, and the only way to set an example, is to “Set and Example”.

That is the same thing I’m conflicted with in this same situation. I keep trying to replay this incident in my head to see if there was something that I did wrong, or if it is a lack of respect. The reason that I put these pictures up was to paint a perfect picture to the objective eye, so that anyone with common sense could see that what appeared to have happened was an accident. In the 9 days since the accident happened, I have started to lean towards it being a lack of respect, in addition to it being accident.

The reason that my attitude has changed in this time was I never received any type of contact to see how I was doing from this person. I have to be honest in saying if I crashed into any rider, and I went on to finish the race, the first thing I would find out is if the person is ok. Everyone looks at the results after the race, and if you see “5000000” by my name it means I didn’t even finish the first lap. Listen, this cycling community is small and it had to get back that I got hurt, didn’t finish the race, went to the hospital, and my season is over because of this accident.

I really was hoping for a contact from this person, and it was not for my ego. It was to confirm my “Spirit for Caring” for another human. Mtn and Road Biking is my “Clark Kent”, and my “Super Man” is Professional Table Tennis. I’m a Certified Coach, and I make my living standing on my feet coaching table tennis to my clients. In addition, I have training videos that are selling all over the world. I still compete at the National Level, and Thanksgiving Weekend is the Biggest Team Tournament in the world, and I will be missing that now. Our National Championships is next month in Las Vegas and my participation in that competition is in serious doubt. If I do attend my performance is in direct doubt as I would have been off my feet for more than 30 days.

No riders racing the FSC are paid enough to make a living. We are all doing this because we are addicts to sitting in that saddle to see how much pain we can endure, while asking “Why am I doing this” at the same time. So, if any rider gets put out by an season ending injury, that injury will affect their life.

Most of my teammates know this rider, and a couple of them were really psst that he had not contacted me after more than 4 days. A couple of them were ready to confront him, but I urged them not to do it. I was holding out for a contact just to say “Hey, I’m sorry and I hope you are OK”. In this case most people’s attitude would turn from frustration to anger, and I can say that I have felt neither, and I will never allow myself to go there. I first felt nothing, because I do know deep down that it was an accident. After not being contacted, it went from having no feelings to sadness and lack of hope. I felt sadness because I felt like this person made a conscious decision not to contact me, and it did not hurt my feelings, it hurt my spirit. It hurt my spirit with regards to people that won’t make it a point to recovery or repair a relationship. I can’t get back this 30 days of not working. I can’t get back the form that I lost. I can’t get back the rest of the season I will miss. I can’t get back the experience of hanging with my teammates for the entire race weekend. I can’t get back missing the biggest Table Tennis Tournament of the year where I had put together a Dream Team. I will forever have this scar on the back of my leg, and I can’t get that back. There are a lot of things that I lost, and the only thing I did not want to lose was “Hope”.

Being contacted would restore any persons’ hope. This is all I could possible want for my spirit. He’s not going to pay my hospital bills, or repay me for the 1-month of work I missed. But a simple phone call would restore my spirit, and confirm to me that he really is saddened that this accident happened. So hope in this person is really what I lost, and a great question is, “Where does that take me now?” This puts the person exactly where I put the last rider I had a problem with.

Now, I’m back in the same situation of losing respect for another rider because of a simple human emotion………………..Courtesy. Courtesy is more than a word. If you step on a person’s shoe it is common courtesy to acknowledge that. How difficult is it to pick up the phone to offer something that says, “My bad”, “I’m Sorry”, “Hope you get better soon”, etc. In this world where there is so much chaos it can be very difficult to have simple principles, and it can be even more difficult to actually stick with those principles, especially when your spirit is tested. It is simple to stick to your principles, and in some cases it may seem complex. This is not one of those cases.

I can say with all honesty that this is rider that I will most likely never ride with again, EVER.

Pacer Out!