Crash and burn…

Last Sunday I was out riding with my buddy Marcel, a nice sunny day to cycle to his parents and back. We left around 0830 and as it was quite cool out I had decided to wear long legged tights until it warmed up later. We arrived without incident at Marcel’s parents house 45 km later, enjoyed a few coffees and I removed the long trousers to continue in my shorts which I had on under them. I balled up the long trousers and stuffed them under the back of my shirt, something I have done often.

Departing at around 1100 hrs we headed back for home, stopping at 1145 hrs to call home to let the ladies know we would be a bit later than we had planned. We were at 71km’s distance for the day, just about to leave Drunen when the long trousers decided to drop out of my shirt, into my back wheel… I was standing up and the bike just stopped under me… needless to say, I went head over heals onto the rather rough pavement and slid onto the grass next to the bike path we were on. Marcel was in front of me and was rather shocked at the noise I made hitting the ground and of my bike flying around. He rushes back to me while I am spitting out grass and taking assessment of the damage. I have various bruises, scraped a good deal of skin off my arms, legs, elbows and knees. The worst was my left hand, broken for sure as I can’t see my last knuckle anymore or feel my last two fingers.

Marcel’s girlfriend Diana was nice enough to pick me up and take me to the emergency room. 3,5 hours later I have the cast and sore body that is the grand total at the 1700 km mark of my cycling summer. I am out of biking and off the road for 5-6 weeks I am told.

The knuckle is broken off the top end of the bone in my hand just under the pinkie. It took four doctors two tries to set it and a grand total of 7 x-rays before I was allowed to go home. Man did this hurt, more than my other injuries in the past (broken collar-bone, both wrists, right hand and blown out knee). The pictures are of me heading to the hospital the day after the accident as they though it might need an operation to set it right. Luckily not!