A big thank you to the folks at Bell Helmets!

Hi all…been a while since I’ve been here…been travelling a lot.

A cautionary tale about wrecking your bike.

I took my brand new Canondale out for a spin on Friday. A few miles into the ride on the Great Highway in SF a car blew by me pretty close causing me to swerve towards the hard shoulder. If you know this road you’ll know the shoulder is concrete and there’s a 2 inch wide gap in the road surface betweeb the asphalt and the concrete shoulder which is where my front wheel neatly slotted itself.

I was in a big gear and riding hard one minute, the next I was thrown up in the air and came crashing down hard on my right side. The last thing I remember about the wreck was my head bouncing off the concrete and thinking to myself that a person shouldn’t be able to hit their head that hard and still be alive…that was promptly followed by a loud scraping sound as I slid across the ground face down…luckily the noise was coming from the front of my helmet not my face.

Damage Report: handlebars are writeoffs, pedals are writeoffs, need new break and gear levers for the right side. Helmet gloves shorts, jacket and top are all total writeoffs. Luckily the frame and wheels suffered no damage.

Right arm broken - head of radius in the elbow. Road rash down the right side, left thumb all chewed up. Right shoulder separated, fingers on right hand sprained.

Luckily I landed on my head.

6-8 weeks on the sofa…Wildflower ain’t looking good.

Bad luck but what matters is that you lived to race another day.

Good luck getting better

Dan

BTDT, bro’ my condolences. Definitely makes the case for a good helmet. Glad you’re OK (at least more or less OK, it sure could have been worse).

Now is the chance to branch out. Learn to write left-handed… Learn to master dictation software… Learn to brush your teeth holding the toothbrush in your toes…

Let’s hope you’re back in racing shape by summer. The rehab always takes longer than you think. Don’t rush it, don’t get frustrated, one day it’ll just work like it’s supposed to.

dude – wow. glad you’re more or less okay. talk about a bumpy ride. nothing like a little injury forced time off. battle scars, i guess, dedication to the cause.