TLDR below
Last Sunday I headed out for my weekly long solo ride. I got about 22 miles in, up the first tough climb of the day, and was enjoying the ride along the ridge when my front wheel suddenly washed out as I was approaching a left. GPS record says i was doing 21MPH, but i really couldn tell if that accurate seems high. It felt like the tire rolled off the rim, but inspection after says no: fully inflated to 115psi.
So I bounced up in wicked agony after the asphalt slip n slide. Quick inspection: Lots of red/bleeding skin along my left leg and arm. My left palm was missing a chunk of skin, and my hand was very stiff. Left shoulder took a good hit, too. I managed to avoid hitting my head. The road rash burned so intensely i couldn really focus on much else. Time to walk in circles while muttering obscenities and clinching teeth.
It was about 45F outside, and while i had started with full gloves and sleeves, i had removed them for the very steep 2.5 mile climb i had just completed. I failed to put them back on.
Now that i wasn working, the cold was setting in alongside the nausea. Shivering, dripping in sweat and blood, and writhing in pain, i sat alongside the road for about 20 minutes before picking up my bike. Getting the chain back on took some work cuz my hands were still numb with searing pain. The brifters both took some grinding, as did the seat, and the rear skewer. The bars were knocked askew. Otherwise, it appeared to be okay.
I put the right glove back on, but my left hand screamed in pain when i tried putting its on. Hmmm.
Mounted up with my crooked handlebars and 1 glove on, i continued the, now slower, decent of the very technical road i was on. It didn seem too bad at first, although the cold air blowing over the rashes was less than special. A few braking squeezes and bumpy sections later tho, and i was pretty certain my left hand was broken. At this point i had about 23 miles back home, or about 90 minutes in my busted up condition. I still didn have cell reception, but was only about 2mi from where i could call the wifey.
So, call the wife, wait in the cold, have her be worried and/or pissed all the way out, drive back. very likely 70min all told? Or ride home and be there in 80 90 minutes and at least have something to keep my mind off the ridiculous pain levels? I chose to ride. Bad choice? I don know if it made things worse or not. Also not sure i could have handled just sitting there in the cold waiting.
Most of the ride home, once off the mountain, was no handed so i could keep my left hand elevated. This is when I noticed that my fingers weren sitting right kinda pointing at just slightly wrong angles. Bugga. I also realized my tungsten carbide wedding band was still on my quickly swelling finger. BUGGAH. Stopped to fix that. Getting that off hurt. A Lot.
Got home. Scrubbed down in the shower and put some bandages on the worst of the wounds so i didn get blood all over everything i touched. Off to the ER where they brillo padded me some more before telling me i had a torsional fracture of my 4th metacarpal. The X rays were obvious no trained technician needed for that assessment. Surgery may be required, but i need to see a hand guy to know for sure. Come Monday I saw 2 hand docs, both said surgical reduction was needed. 1 was willing to schedule it right away. In the OR at 8pm, home at 3am with a new Ti plate in my hand. Cast for a few weeks. Prognosis is good.
Low side crash: road rash and broken hand
Lapse in attention and/or over familiarity likely the cause. I felt I was watching pretty closely, but i obviously missed something. It is what I call a road. I ridden it many times and always take it easy due to the trickiness of it: Rough shape, single lane, lots of dirty corners. Maybe not easy enough.
You are poor at self assessment right after trauma. I lucky it was only my hand that came to light after i started riding again.
Being alone is not A Good Thing in bad situations and your cell phone won always be available reconsider solo rides cheap nfl jerseys and their routes
Calling for assistance after a bad fall is probably the wiser path
Gloves should be ON the hands, especially when descending
Crashing sucks cheap jerseys oh so much more than you remember
Hairy legs don help in the cheap nfl jerseys clean up/bandaging process
Riding for pleasure or fitness isn a race, especially on dangerous roads. While not pushing it, i def could have backed off more than i had.
Can wait to ride (and run) again, but I know cornering is going to be a different process for a while