Monday 19 November 2007

Aaagh ! This is not what I need !!

I finally made it out on an off-road ride with Stanley last Saturday. It was a nice sunny morning, and I was enjoying the trails - especially as I could see an improvement in my efforts (cross racing must be helping).

However, what should've been a 4 hour ride was brought to an abrupt end after an hour and a half. I took a tumble on a chalky descent, just before Box Hill, at Juniper Hall. It wasn't the impact of the fall itself that did the damage, but the impact of my arm hitting the frame of my bike as I went down.
Normally when I go down I get up pretty quickly afterwards. But at that moment I sat for a few minutes clutching my elbow. Stanley had to wheel my bike down the rest of the slope while I walked.
The pain was too much for me to be able to operate the gears and brakes of my cross bike so we headed back by train.

We then spent Saturday afternoon at St Helier's Hospital A&E. Diagnosis is a suspected fractured radial head (though X-rays aren't conclusive).

Whatever it is, I can't do full activities as before for at least the next month. Right now, it's too painful to ride the cross bike, and the road bike will throw up the same problem, as the levers are operated in the same way.
I can use the mountain bike (which is what I used at the cyclo cross race yesterday). The last remaining cycling option is the track bike - no brakes to operate so no problem - as long as I don't fall on that arm ! I am due to go to Calshot next week. We'll see how my arm feels then.

It's all very annoying really. My cold had kept me out of full action over the previous two weeks, and Saturday was the first day I felt healthy while riding. Ironically I chose to ride the trails so as to avoid the risk of falling on the icy roads ! Sods law eh. Ooh it's so frustrating !

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very sorry to hear that! I have fallen off that descent myself, but luckily only damaged my wheels. Get well soon!

2Wheel Chick said...

Hi Elliott, thanks for that. It's not a complex fracture so I should be ok in a couple of weeks.
Cheers !