gabiker

Well they say if you ride enough it will happen and boy did it happen. While riding with the group last Sunday cruising along about 18 to 20 mph, the rider in front of me clipped the wheel in front of him and went down hard, bike going out to the left and body to yhe right leaving me no place to go but over. He later said when he looked up he saw me flying over and the next thing I remember was laying on my back, bike on top of me grasping for breath and my right side and shoulder in severe pain.

After x-rays it was determine that I have a severly broken colar bone, one fractured rib, six cracked ribs and some road rash. The ribs are the worse, because you can't even breathe without pain.

The really tough part is this is the best time of the year to ride and I was planning on doing Bicycle Ride Across Tennessee in 2 weeks.

The good news is everythibg will heel and I'll be back out there in a couple months.

cydewaze

Damn man! Hope you heal quickly.

TheKillerPenguin

Holy crap! At least you survived

how's the bike?

Arizona-Cyclist

Same thing happend to me - only four ribs though. My collar bone is now shaped like the mark of Zorro! You will get better and be back on the bike, but you will cringe everytime the pack slows down for another year. I'll bet the first guy that went down only had some road rash. The guy behind always gets it worse because of the going over the top. Hope you feel better. Percocet does wonders.

gabiker

The bike landed on me so it is fine. The bar has few scratches and it's carbon so I'm not sure about it.

I don't know what happened to the subject of this thread, I guess the drugs are better than I thought.

gabiker

Yes he is ok some road rash and a sore back. The 2 riders behind me went down as well and just had some road rash and the 2 behind them got tangled up, but didn't go down. All in all we were lucky that no one was hurt worse, because there were some cars passing at the time.

nova

Heheh thanks for the laugh and at least your sense of humor has healed
Now you just need to wait for the rest to heal.

rule

Sorry to hear about your hurt. Welcome to the club though. Heal up and relax. The road will still be their when you get back.

Avatar

So sorry to hear about your injury. Take your time healing as tempting as it is to go outside after 4 weeks and don't strain yourself trying to type with one hand!

garysol1 

That is such a fear of mine everytime our group is in a paceline. I try to ride a little left so I can see down the line but I just know that someday it will happen and there will not be a damn thing I can do about it.

cjbruin

Ain't the initiation a bi+ch? Sorry to hear about your tumble. If your doc hasn't already given you a figure-8 brace, get one. They are really good for keeping your shoulders aligned so you clav will heal properly.

How is your helmet?

Best wished for a speedy recovery.

fixedfiend

hey, I'd trade a broken collarbone for my seperated AC ligament in my shoulder. pretty similar accident had me off the bike for about 3 weeks. Still not fully healed 3 months later. Will always have this lump on my shoulder. At least with a broken clavicle, the bone heals quite quickly compared to ligaments and tendons.

TheKillerPenguin

agree, figure 8 is a lot more comfortable too. Try to get two of em so you can shower with one on and change into the other right after.

Maelstrom 

sounds like you crashed like I did (although the method to my crash was different) 5 weeks later and they still hurt (no fracture, just cracked) but I can ride. The worst is not moving the bike around but the actual pedalling. I can ride downhill till the cows come home, but once my lungs inflate I am screwed. I had to stop 8 times last night.

Heal up, rib injuries SUCK

MICHAELM

Let me make you feel better. May 21st, I also had a crash. I broke my collarbone, shoulder blade and all my ribs on the left side. While in the hospital, (13 days and 4 of those in ICU) my lung collapsed and to top that off I had an allergic reaction to the "wonderful" drugs and my back looked totally raw as part of the allergic reaction. I began riding again the last week of July and now here it is the second week of September and I am getting 150 miles or so a week. So, heal up and jump back on the horse that threw you.

gabiker

Like I said it could have been worse and I feel very fortunate that it wasn't. I'm glad your better and back at it.

jstockton858

i got very lucky in an accident i had yesterday. im in a cycling class in my college as a tool to make me get outside and ride more often. a lot of the riders are just beginning with road cycling. im pretty new to cycling as well so in no way am i an expert.

well we were riding in a 5 person pack along a 55mph highway practicing drafting. i was in the back at the moment and we went over a bridge. some reason 2 people in front of me break and i had no time to react at a 20-25 mph pace. i hit the person in front and break a couple spokes and my front wheel locks up (this is what im assuming). so i go over the front and stop myself with my hands but land on my left side in the middle of the road with a car swerving around me. my rear wheel is toast and front has a couple broken spokes but luckily i managed to get out safely with some road rash and relatively minor damage to my bike.

Barista

I am at home recovering now after hitting the pavement pretty hard resulting in a broken and dislocated shoulder and collarbone. I had the longest ambulance rides (yes, the first one broke down and they had to call a second one) of my life.

My shoulder was broken into four pieces and I had to have emergency surgery to put everything back together with screws and plates. I don't know what the figure-8 is, though. My ortho doc insisted that I stop using a sling after 4 days because of the risk of getting a frozen shoulder.

Rehab sucks. My kids think I'm a big baby beccause I start crying over lifting my arm with a pulley.

Best regards in your recovery.

4SEVEN3

Crashing Sucks

Get well soon!!!!!

bing181

Well, I have half what you do .. managed the other half earlier this year.

Broken collarbone for the moment .. 3 weeks into it, but back on the trainer for the past few days, though I suspect it wasn't too serious. I actually rode 40 km home with it broken - feeling every bump and pebble.

At least you have a good excuse. I just had the bike go out from under me (over a bump) for no reason I can fathom on a perfectly straight road with no-one in sight. My wife is muttering about "dangerous sports" etc. etc.

Earlier this year I broke a rib when I hit some ice on a day that I should have stayed indoors. I had a hard time training my kids not to make me laugh .. boy, that hurt.

Hang in there .. it will pass.

B

TheKillerPenguin