Once again the experts prove me wrong.

So on friday the 21st I was riding the cycling course of a local sprint tri that I am doing part of a relay.  About 4 miles in I was cruising along around 18 or 19 MPH and a car that was at a stop sign pulled in front of me.  I began to unclip and hit the brakes.  I got my right foot out and almost had my left foot out when I got too heavy on the brakes and came over the top of the handlebars, landing on the hood of the car (and leaving my butt imprint).  The cops arrived shortly. thereafter, as a lady from a shop accross the street had seen the entire thing happen. 
To be fair, the gentleman did not try and drive away.  His first concern was for me and my health.  He asked me why I didn't stop at the stop sign.  I answered, because there isn't one.  It was the first time that he realized that it was not a 4 way stop at the intersection.  The officer gave him a ticket for failure to yield and told me I should see a doctor.  I told him I would check in with myt regular physician, but only had a scrape on the side of my left hand and on my left knee, from rolling off of the car.  I road the remaining 12 miles of the course and finished at around 52 minutes (my Garmin stops timing when you are moving under 3 mph). 
I got a call on Saturday from the man's insrance company asking me to go and see a doctor just to get checked out, so I did.  My left pinky finger was broken below the first knuckle.  The doc at the clinic set up an appointment at the hand specialist that was also a sports medicine guy.  He tells me that they have to do surgery and shows me the break.  It is not a break across the finger, but slightly parellel to the outside of the finger, kind of like the way a tree branch might break in a storm.  I say no (mostly because I'm stupid, but largely because I missed The Hy-Vee Tri last year with a broken foot and Hy-Vee had done a "mostly-true" story on me this year on their website - here if you want to read it: http://www.hy-veetriathlon.com/community/Crossing-Finish-Line.aspx   
Doc and I worked together and figured out a way to do the surgey, protect it during the race and not let anyone down, though my time would suffer.   So I had surgery to install 3 screws on Thursday, May 28th.  On Monday I did my first post-surgery ride and we did right arounf 40 miles in 2 1/2 hours, with my left arm in a splint (riding on the aero bars).  I was almost back to the cars and my bike suddenly veered to the right.  My front tire hit a very deep series of troughs on the side of the path and I went down quickly, striking my right knee, right elbow, right shoulder and right side of my head. 
It hurt.  Since we were by the trailhead, there were a bunch of people around (that's not emberrasing)and folks helped me get up and a couple of guys noted that my chain was broken and three of the teeth off of my large crank were sheared off.  It was almost like a scene from Seinfeld as one of the guys asked me if I had recently wrecked my bike as he looked up and saw the half arm splint in mid-sentence.  Went to the hospital with a mild concusion and severe road rash on my knee and a swollen, rashy elbow (in which the swelling has now gone down.

All of this to say - follow the rules and have a mechanic check out your ride structurally after any crash.  If I would have been alone, going faster, or out in the middle of a country road, things could have turned out a lot worse. 


Edited by jdwright56 2010-06-02 6:08 AM