I had a hard fall on the road last night during our Tuesday night group ride out of Kannapolis and the asphalt won?!?!?! There were a few riders ahead of me which obstructed my view of some pretty big rocks on the road. When I hit one of them I was flipped sideways landing on my right hip, knee and chin. I broke my right hip and have a lot of road rash. I got stitches in my elbow and chin (the ER PA intern’s first stitches!!! I’m sure he learned from doing mine!!!) I’m really glad I didn’t break my jaw or collarbone. Boy, it sure happened quickly and was a hard glancing blow.
The rider behind me ran over my front wheel but fortunately was able to say upright. I haven’t had the chance to inspect my bike but I’m hoping my body took the brunt of the fall. The riders behind me said I gracefully rode the bike to the ground.
Our club goes to extremes to communicate potential hazards so who knows how I missed the cues. We weren’t really pushing the pace, just moving along at a comfortable 22-23 mph on flattish ground. The rocks came out of a gravel driveway and were further out in the road than normal. I hadn’t ridden a recovery ride since the 200k on Saturday but I had walked 18 holes on both Monday and Tuesday. My legs were feeling particularly good and I was already thinking about picking up the pace on a 1 mile climb a couple miles ahead just to see what I could do. I was probably close to my peak form for the year. I was well positioned in the group with just a handful of good, predictable riders ahead of me. It just happened so fast.....
I knew pretty immediately there were issues with my right hip. My leg was twisted a little and for sure wasn’t cooperating. I’d sure hate it if whatever damage I did to the Pinarello wasn’t repairable. That’s been a perfect everyday bike for me. I’ll check it out when I get out of the hospital.
Luckily one of bike club fellas had ridden that morning, is a professional videographer and was following us with his drone. He was out on the course in his pickup, heard the commotion and was onsite within minutes. He carried my bike and other riding stuff back to my van at the start. We then went to ER where my wife was waiting.
Ball in my right hip was toast. Through fortunate circumstances I wound up with having dialogue with a hip replacement specialist via his partner who was on call. After listening to me describe my various activities I wound up convincing them to do the full hip replacement. That should give me more service longer. We went from looking at doing a partial replacement with a non specialist to the top guy in the group doing the full replacement. I count my blessings for how that played out!!!
I was happy to donate my cycling shorts to the ER scissors. Just glad I didn’t have to remove them.
The doctor is telling me 6-8 weeks until I can ride a stationary bike and 3 months for golf. However he wouldn’t commit to a timeframe for road riding right now. I’m fine with that. We’ll see how things go. I’m guessing the 200 miles to the Beach in early October might just be a stretch right now?!?!?!
At least I got in a super 200k over the weekend with some really nice folks.
Check out the swelling on my right hip, football sized! The doctor indicated that the outer layer of skin had separated from the fatty tissue underneath and all the blood was pooling there. It was a really hard blow and bounce off the asphalt!! He went ahead and installed a drain/pump to remove the blood.
Huge hematoma on my right hip
Knee road rash
Road rash on my right hip right elbow prettysad looking
Right elbow pretty sad looking
Drain pump
Elbow and chunk out of my chin
Drain post hip replacement
Right now morphine is my friend!!