Cross is over .......for me

I was watching the race today from Belgium and it was great! The course was so unique it was kind of a learning process for me. One of these days I'll get across the pond and do a few races and maybe Masters Worlds.

This was from the first race of the year, Hermann Cross, Won the 50+ both days

That was a pretty relaxed event and after hitting few of the bigger events The TREK CXC crew was on a roll. With our next big travel block looming Mark and I had figured out a schedule that would get all of the teams equipment from Omaha, to St.Louis, to Louisville, and back to Omaha in about 10 days.

It was all going according to plan until I crashed in a low speed corner at the Gateway Cup Cross race in St.Louis. I can't count how many times I've crashed harder, going way faster.But this time it was different, as soon as I hit the ground I knew I was hurt. From my knee to my toes it hurt and it hurt bad. As I was laying there I could see the odd angle that my ankle was sitting. Now I've broken a few bones in my life but I could tell this was different. Adding to an obvious ankle/Tibia issues there was the fact that my right knee is my bad knee. Good or bad, I'm not sure at this point but if it was my other knee I would be having a knee operation as well. Since everything got twisted my bad knee still moves, just a added a few different grinding noises.

Everybody wants to know, how did I manage to do this much damage in such a slow speed crash? Here's what I think happened. It was 2 laps to go in my race when I  rolled into section where there was a short, steep, downhill followed by a sharp 180 turn. I think that my front wheel started washing out and then caught, sending me highside over the bars. Then next thing I remember is lying on the bround in incredible pain, pain from my knee to my toes.

I won't go into the details of the ambulance ride or the 9 hrs I spent in the emergency room. i will say that the ER crew kept me pretty busy most of that time.

pins, plates, and screws

This sucked when they put it back into place, glad I was out

Post Opp pictures, plenty of new hardware

Bad part of crashing when you are out of town is finding a way home. Having surgery the next day helped move things along. We were very fortunate that Mark and I were only on the first leg of our trip. 3.5 hrs and Nancy could come and save me.

I really do need to say Thank You to so many people for their good wishes, and offers to help. It means so much to know there is community out there that is looking out for each other.