I’ve been doing pretty good … training for the double centuries, I got in 2 centuries in January, so I’m feeling pretty good about my preparations for the first double of the year, which is Solvang, at the end of March. I had completed a century on Saturday, and it was a tough ride, with a very long climb, so on Sunday, I was ready for a shorter ride.
I was trying to hook up for a ride with Marco, but wasn’t sure exactly when they were going to ride. I went ahead and took care of some mundane stuff, like cleaning the house, and doing laundry. I got a text from Marco at around 12 noon, saying they were going out for a ride, with Ramon coming over any minute now. I was thinking about going, but there is no way I would be able to make it there in time to do a ride with them. Oh pooh … I guess I’ll have to do a solo ride.
I decided to take a ride up Montebello. It was a good ride going up, and not too busy. No one passed me going up the hill, so that was good. I was making good time, considering I already did 100 miles the day before. Made it up in a respectable 47 minutes. Well, let’s say that’s respectable by my standards.
Descending Montebello, there was nothing out of the ordinary … passed by one other rider who was up at the top by the time I got there. I was going along my merry way and then all of a sudden ….
Next thing I can remember at this point, is that I am lifted into an ambulance. I had taken a fall. What I remember from the audio soundbits is that I am taken to Stanford Medical center. I seem to recall being in an ambulance, as I don’t recall being transported into a chopper, so I was not airlifted at all.
They checked me out, for head injuries, concussion, in the trauma center, and thankfully, no concussion, no head injuries of any sort, but my face did take a beating. I looked at my helmet, and the ground completely missed my helmet. How unlucky is that!
They kept me there for observations for several hours, just to make sure my head was completely working right. After joking around with the doctors, they pretty much came to the conclusion that I am okay. The volunteer firemen at Stevens Creek were amazing. Kudos to all of them, as they blocked off the road to take care of little ole me. They were all concerned for my well being and they were relieved to see me up and at em.
The scene of the accident was right across from the Montebello school. The owner of the house, right across from the school, helped with coning off the road, and I have him to thank for all of this. Thanks a bunch Howard.
It looks like what happened was as I was entering the turn past Montebello School, I may have entered sweeping a little too far off the right. In that area, lot of times, mud patches are off to the shoulder of the road, and I may have sweeped off there, lost control, and the bike went to the right, while I went the other way, like a pancake, and did a big face plant on the road. It’s amazing that I came out of there with just facial abrasions, sore left arm, and a tendor pinkie and ring finger on my left hand. All in all, I am grateful, first for Howard, and second to the excellent volunteer firefighters in Stevens Creek.
Apparently, when I fell, I yelped out a loud screech, that was in Howard’s words indescribeable … I just hope I didn’t frighten everyone too much. One comment that Howard made … and this is extremely surprising … was that there were several cyclists that descended, and didn’t even stop. I didn’t observe it, but Howard did mention that, and I find that shocking. No love for a down cyclist?
Anyhow, almost a week later, and the swelling has gone down. At first, on Monday, I could barely see out of my left eye. If anything, I would see my own face. Now that the swelling has subsided, my left cheek is healing up, and the blood along the cheek has dried up. I still feel like there is something on my face … Now, what I have to avoid doing picking at the dried blood on my face.
One week later, my face doesn’t hurt that much. However, my left arm does feel a bit weak. I have some issues with heavy lifting with my left arm, so I’ll just try to do some light arm curls. My left hand is a bit tender, with my pinkie and my ring finger not being able to close all the way. But I guess that’s the most vulnerable part, so that shouldn’t be too unexpected.
When I got my bike, my handlebars look a little tweaked … not sure though. I’ll bring it in the have it looked at. It just felt weird grabbing the handlebars. Maybe it’s just not grabbing the handlebars for a week, and it felt weird?
So I was wondering how fast I was descending just before I fell. Since I had my Garmin, I figure that would be perfect. So I take my Garmin, plug in, and upload to Garmin … and it still is uploading. What’s strange is that there is not much data. I only see a 2k fit file there. Somehow, it must have lost the data? That sucks man!
One thing that gets to me though … I know they needed to check me all out, and they couldn’t risk moving my limbs, so they had to cut my clothes open to inspect me. So I had a vest on … easy to zip it down … they even cut that. Damn! Also, Michael had just given me a hand me down jersey … that was all cut up. So now I have to look for new jersey, new shorts, new jacket. But I guess the alternative is pain and injury. I guess I’ll go do some shopping. 🙂
Sevencyclist's Blog 