Yesterday I remarked that the TdF riders were not likely to have snow on the road as they climbed the Col du Tourmalet. And that was the case. But if the race had been 600 miles to the ENE from Tourmalet the story may have been different. Snow at the top of Passo dello Stelvio on July14th!
This morning we watched the Tour de France train cover some territory with which we are familiar, bringing back memories from three years back when we danced around in that section of the Pyrenees. Tomorrow the TdF will continue in that region giving us another opportunity to remember our experiences. But I do not think the TdF riders will face some of the obstacles we encountered in the area around the Col du Tourmalet. In Ste. Marie de Campan we found the road completely blocked by a herd of cattle and the herders did not seem to feel that moving their charges along was a priority.
Near the top of the climb to Toumalet we found a rather deep snowbank blocking the road about 100m from the top. I got to try my cyclocross techniques to get our bikes across this barrier. At the bottom of the climb we had been assured that the road was clear, bicycle accessible, but closed to cars. I am relatively certain that there will be no snow on the road tomorrow.
When you are housebound, for the most part, you have to live a bit vicariously. Tomorrow morning we get the opportunity to revisit part of our honeymoon, a cycling tour through southwestern France and northeastern Spain. The mid-part of that tour involved dancing across some of the high passes of the Pyrenees, a spectacular region I wished we had spent a bit more time exploring. Tomorrow’s stage 9 of the Tour de France will visit two of our favorite passes, the Col de Peyresourde and the Col d’Aspin. Look for the restaurant advertising crepes at the top of Peyresourde, where we spent some time chatting with an Aussie who was spending some months in the region having some fun. Time for some memories.
Went out this morning and had the first post-operation x-rays taken of the right hip. Last x-rays I saw were taken right after I arrived at the ER back on June 18th. The scanner does not want to pick up a lot of detail from the new ‘pictures’, but it is obvious that a bit of extra hardware has been added. Time to take a trip and see what happens when I go through the metal detectors.
My daily ‘range’, the area in which I can move freely, is a bit restricted at the moment. The maximum travel distance is say 60-70 feet. I feel a bit like an animal in a cage at the zoo; no matter how nice the surroundings the limitations on movement start to grate on you. Much of my day is spent either at my desk in the office or on the couch. Pretty boring.
At least I timed things so the ‘Tour’ is going on during the time of forced confinement. And it has been interesting so far. I watch the Versus live feed as soon as I get up until the stage ends for the day. We did not watch that much of it last year, but in 2006 we watched a whole lot, much of it while in Portland. The place we stayed in Portland did not get OLN so we had to find an alternative spot for watching. Chris King sponsored viewings of the recaps/rebroadcasts at a local watering hole but then we found St. Honoré Boulangerie, a local bakery that showed the OLN coverage live each morning. The bakery was about a mile from where we were staying so the ritual was to get up, get on the bikes, roll to the bakery for the opening, then jostle with the locals for a seat with a good view of the large flat-panel TV. Once settled, part of the ritual was to watch for favorites breads and pastries coming out of the oven so we could get them while they were hot and tasty. Sure would be nice to have a warm chocolate croissant with my coffee in the morning. Might make the confinement seem less ornerous.
The right side of my body seems to take the brunt of all my mishaps. The way I am going it might not be long before every major joint on the right side of my body has had to be reconstructed. The list:
- Ankle: pretty much destroyed in one of those ball sports back around ‘67, reconstructed in ‘68.
- Knee: off and on damage over the years, possibly more in the latest incident. Will have X-rays and an assessment made in a couple of weeks.
- Hip: in the recent accident the hip end of the femur needed to be reconstructed using traction and a ‘box of hardware’ according to the orthopedic surgeon. Interested to see the X-rays next week.
- Shoulder: definitely messed up after the recent accident. So far the orthopedic surgeon has ruled out rotator cuff damage, but nothing else.
- Elbow: hey, no damage. Yeah!
- Wrist: pretty messed up when I was presumably drop-kicked by a car in 2002. Have an “L” shaped titanium plate and 6 screws holding it together.
The left side has been relatively free of damage. Some minor damage to the knee, and broken ribs from a car accident, but no joint reconstruction. Perhaps I need to add additional padding and protective material to my right side?
And that will not start to convey all the gratitude I feel and debt I owe to those who have assisted me over the past few days.
For those not keeping up, I took a spill at Hellyer Velodrome on Wednesday night, leaving a fair amount of skin behind (nose, upper lip, both knees, both elbows), getting bit of bruising (right ribs, shoulder, and knee), and breaking the end of the right femur. The femur has a metallic rod added on Thursday. I am one messed up guy.
The biggest thanks has to go to The Wife who has been doing yeoman’s duty helping out under what are, for her, difficult circumstances. She has such a tenderness to her heart and soul that it is hard for her to help me at times since helping causes some momentary pain. She fights through and has been solid in doing what she can, and more, to help me get around for now and repair so i can become independent again. I can tell how hard it is, and sometimes my pain may come across as grumpiness, but I can assure her that I appreciate all she does and I am working to keep my comments to myself. Thanks sweetie!! I can never repay in full, but I will work on that debt later.
Also a big thanks to those who helped at Hellyer and assisted in getting us to the hospital. I was pretty much out of it; I remember the start of the race (BxC points race) and I remember someone telling me to wait for the ambulance, but other than that my memory banks are blank until such time I was in the CT machine being scraped along the wall. Major thanks to Rick Adams, and to Michael and Sabine who helped to gather my stuff and get it to the Toaster along with the the newlyweds Erika and Linda who continued to help transporting the toaster to the hospital for the wife, learning my full legal name in the process.
A big thanks to the staff of Regional Medical Center who worked fast to get humpty-dumpty together to the point that I was able to go home about 64 hours post accident. And to the dozens of folks whose calls, e-mails, and blog posts have conveyed good wishes.
And a special thank you to the friends who have taken some of the burden off The Wife by offerering to plan, prepare, and drop off meals to keep us nourished, thereby relieving The Wife of that extra task
If I do not get a chance to extend the thanks in person, know that I want to and I greatly appreciate the tasks of the many.
… training ride. That is what I had at Pescadero on Saturday.
A quick review of the year leading up to this. I was just getting some traction in racing this season, with a good effort at the Rondee von Brisbeen Circuit Race on March 30th, then had my commuter tip-over accident on March 31st leaving me with a broken thumb. That meant no racing for the next 6 weeks and no real intensity workouts for much of that. Then one good crit (EBC) and a couple of good nights of track racing leading up to Memorial Day and a crash in the crit then. That was less than 3 weeks ago, and I was without my racing bike for two of those. The road rash has healed, but there is still some bruising in the lower left back region that is a limiter for really hard efforts. That sets the stage going into Friday. I deluded myself into thinking that despite the paucity of intensity training the past two-and-a-half months, and despite being still a bit sore from a crash 19 days before that I could hang with the pack … at least for the first lap (28 miles).
Friday night as I finished packing for the early Saturday start to Pescadero it became obvious that something in my gastrointestinal tract was not right. And that became more obvious through the night as it kept me awake for a good chunk of the time I should have been sleeping. I gave in and got out of bed at 4:30A, and was doing the internal debate as to whether to trek over the hills to the race or not. The severe cramping was subsiding, so a bit after 6A I figured ‘what the heck’ and we headed for Pescadero.
A slightly late start hitting the road and the need for an urgent pit stop in Woodside led to a later than ideal arrival at the Pescadero High School. After another urgent pit stop and a quick trip to the registration desk, I loaded the extra water bottles into The Wife’s saddle bag and sent her on her way to the feed zone about 16 miles down the road. I then pinned on my number, got the bike ready, and did a warmup on the road between Pescadero and Butano State Park, an abbreviated warmup given our late arrival.
Our field lined up for our 8:50A start, but they were running late and kept getting later. We finally got the start whistle at about 9:12A and eased into the 2 miles or so of neutral promenade through the business district of Pescadero. After the motor pulled off the field picked up the pace slightly but kept things reasonable and I was content in my 5th wheel position on the narrow portion of Stage Road. As we neared the sprint prime point a few more guys, mostly from Synergy-Taleo, came to the front apparently ready to contest for the $15. It was not much of a sprint, three guys powering on the front, then everyone settled into getting ready for the climbs coming up. We hit the first of the Stage Road climbs and the pace was nice, much, much below what I had done on the pre-ride the week before. But the depleted body was, well, depleted and the legs had nothing in them. I could not push; in fact all day I had trouble even tickling the bottom HR zone 5, never even close to reaching HR max, but the legs and body had no push. And so I quickly slid back in the pack as we neared the top and was soon off the back.
For the next 12 miles or so I had visual contact with the pack much of the time, even on the twisty mountainous roads, so I deluded myself into thinking I might catch back on or at least catch some stragglers with which to work. I did pass some remnants of the Cat 4B field that started 20 minutes before us, but never anyone in my field. At the feed zone I told The Wife that I was now in a training ride as she reported the field was not that far in front of me. From the feed zone I had the 2.5 mile climb up Haskins Hill and making ground with dead legs was not in the cards.
I pushed on, not slowing down at all, and did finish the ride strong. I was never passed by any in the two fields behind me, which started 5 ( W P/1/2) and 10 ( W 3/4) minutes after us. I was amazed that as a solo rider on a tough course that neither pack was able to make up the ground, though the front of the W P/1/2 field was only about a minute behind me at the finish.
There were a couple of other interesting tales from the course.
- At the start of lap two, coming into the turn from Pescadero Rd. to Stage Rd. in downtown Pescadero a motorcycle was starting to try to pass me before the turn when a CHP car following squawked on his PA ‘do not cut in front of the bicycle, do not cut in front of the bicycle’.
- Near the top of the first Stage Rd. climb on lap two I was passed by the front of the men’s P/1/2 field. As they passed one of guys pulled to an abrupt stop and pulled up the halves of his Campy Ultra-Torque crankset; apparently the torque on the connecting bolt was insufficient and it had come loose and fallen out. Bummer!
Next year I will try to redeem myself and actually race at Pescadero. But for now I will finish healing and do some intensity work.
That is what I keep asking myself about the Pescadero Road Race this coming Saturday. Originally I was not going to do this race, but signed up for it when I missed the Wente RR due to my broken thumb, figuring I should do one of the hilly road races this year. But the time off the bike due to the thumb compounded with the recovery from the Memorial Day crash has not given me a lot of time to prepare for this sufferfest. And to compound the problem, my right ankle which was rebuilt some 40 or so years ago has been locking up regularly for the past week. I may start a race on Saturday, but end up with a long training ride.
The Wife and I did wander over and do a pre-ride of the Pescadero course on Saturday morning, joining dozens of others taking a look at this beautiful but brutal course. The attached profile is a bit mis-leading; there is only one summit on each climb, but for Saturday’s little ride I tested my climbing legs on each hill then descended back down to find The Wife and then climbed back to the summit with her. And it is just a partial profile of what the race will look like since we will do about 1.7 laps, with the finish at the top of Haskins Hill, the biggest of the 3 climbs on this profile. 47 or so miles, 6 climbs, lots of suffering. It was such wonderful weather on Saturday, and the area so beautiful, it seemed like racing through it and not enjoying it would be almost criminal. Sunday may have been an even better day, but knowing that the Tour de Cure was passing through much of the course area made me want to avoid that traffic jam.
Sunday I did get out for a bit of a ride, mostly trying to work out the ankle. Often when the ankle locks like that riding helps to loosen it up. But not this time; it was locked and painful the entire ride. If it is still acting up like that on Saturday then even the training ride aspect will be abbreviated.
This week I will try to front-load my efforts, and relax a bit at the end of the week. I had an unplanned 24 mile ride to work this morning (CalTrain clogged, again), and will attempt the Tuesday Night Crit tomorrow and track racing on Wednesday. That should be enough before Saturday’s main event, though at least one person has suggested that I should do the Friday night track races, too.
… is mostly back together again.
The road rash from the crash in the Memorial Day crit is rapidly healing. The worst spot is on the back of the left hand, which was itching up a storm through the night and resulting in me throwing in the towel and getting out of bed at 4:37AM (uggh!) since I could not sleep. Still a bit of bruising, but that is fading. All of the bodily parts seem to function.
Last night the Colnago was restored to some semblance of working order. The shifters are on and seem to shift fine. I wrapped up the bars, trying the fi’zi:k tape made of Microtex. Not sure about how it will feel or wear, but it is a pain to work with. Only thing that I have used that is more of a pain is the Brooks leather bar wrap.
This weekend I plan to get out and see if the body and bike will be up to the 47 mile Pescadero Road Race 8 days from now.
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