Road Cycling - My new ride - recooperation aint so bad

I confess, I am a mountain biker - in fact I race them, compete in the MASS in the expert class 34 - 39. But 2 months ago while rock climbing I fell ( I was 85 feet up and feel ~50 feet) Managed to break both hands and one wrist, knee, shoulder, and hip and ribs - thus ending my season.

So now that the cast are off and pins are out I am cleared to ride, the caveat is no mountain biking for obvious reasons. So I set my sites onthe road (have been thinking about augmenting my training with a road bike anyway).

Went to the LBS and he made me an awesome deal on this 2002 Bianchi Vigorelli. I wasn't love at first sight, but it was love at first ride SWEET JESUS this thing can move!! so as a birthday present thie wife and kids give the go ahead. I had my first ride yesterday my 36th brithday 17 short miles, but it was all my hands could stand.... going to go for 25 - 35 today, who says recuperating has got to be unpleasent.....

:D
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid31/p4e527724c7f74d60cb9392ca44be8e6c/fd46b9d6.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid31/p27be5f3633b1780a29e2f28f9e27c302/fd46b99a.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid31/p384ff9e00a9e3f2750936132765185e6/fd46b979.jpg

I'm also a mountain biker (and part-time racer), and I was injured in February while skiing. I had knee surgery in April, and ended up buying a Trek 5200 (my 1st road bike!) in July, as mountain biking is a no-no.

I knew that I'd enjoy road riding - especially in the absence of mountain biking, but I really had no idea. This road thing is VERY addicting. Have fun on the new scoot - it's obviously a super sweet ride.

BTW - nice pix!!

:D

Sweet bike I am a HUGE Bianchi fan I think they make one of the finest road bikes out there. I was just at my LBS yesterday looking at the Bianchi Eros to buy. Need to upgrade from my San Remo that just turned 20, it too is an awesome bike but parts are just getting harder to find and costly I am going to restore it when I get the Eros payed for. Bianchi is a quality machine!

Nice looking bike. That's the brightest yellow I think I've ever seen :) Take care of those hands.

Good luck! Glad you are on the road to recovery. That's cool you are so excited about the road bike!
Hey, one of the most common injuries on a road bike is a broken collarbone so if you should (heaven forbid) wipe, at least it will be a fresh bone and not a re-break;)

Anyway, good luck putting on the miles. The road bike can get very addicting!

Oh I'm hooked already, its a welcome break (no pun intended) from having to lug my MTB to the thrial and hten ride. I have logged 62 miles on it since Firday - probably small potatoes to the folks in here, but pretty fun for me!

thanks.

ed

one of my other hobbies is climbing, and I'm a big safety freak. So if you don't mind me asking, what happened during your climb?

I was leading a route named arrow in the GUNKS 5.8 PG. I Was about 80 feet up, near the end of the first pitch. I had the climb zipped up pretty well, and was placing mostly small cams every 5 - 15 ft from good stances. found myself at a decent stance but with a horizontal crack I couldn't fit anything in. I was out of small cams, the moderate sized ones were to big, no nut would stay put, so I was left with tri-cams. I stuck a pink tri-cam in and set it as good as I could.

From that stance I could see the promised land but there was some balancey facey moves to get there - noramlly I stick like glue to that stuff - I must have climbed through the sequence 3 or 4 times to get it wired before I went to far and could not reverse. almost made it through when I came off. had a split second to yell falling and then went for the ride of my life 8 feet down to the tri-cam which pulled, 15 feet more to a green alien which held.

around a 46 footer with rope stretch I call it 50 feet. I hit everything agaisnt the limestone on the way down. When I stopped I was sideways looking *into* my left hand - sliced it wide open, hit my head 3 times (wearing a helmet)and so many more injuries taht would take hours to decipher athe ER. I was dangling about 25 feet from my belayer and missed a 1.5 foot ledge by about that much. Took nearly 3 hours to get me down.

On the way down I swore I was dead, I never moved so fast in my life, I could not belive how fast I was falling and figured that everything had pulled and I was going to deck. I didnt thank god.

I was safe enough, but that last piece wasnt good enough to get run out on. This sport has very real consequences, stay safe.

ed

after reading that I'm sweating

it's one of those things... the more I learn the less I know..