Another Racing Re Schedule

I am most inconveniently on the recovery train again. This fractured rib would have to be the most frustrating injuries i have ever had. Fortunately i can only remember being injured 4 times in my international sporting adventures, 2 in rowing and now 2 in cycling, since 2001 so i cant really complain, the annoyance of these injuries is that they either required surgery or repairing fractures so i certainly make sure i get proper injured when i do.

This latest inconvenience could not have come at a more annoying time. Should i have noticed when the initial fracture actually occured 4 weeks ago while racing in arona i would probably well and truly be healed up by now. Instead i have managed to aggrivate the fracture and inturn made it worse in the the racing last weekend which has put my recovery back probably 3 weeks which inturn will mean i will miss another grand tour for the 2011 season, the Vuelta Espania. Now i am starting to see some benefit from missing le tour as i am well equiped to coming to terms with missing what would have been the most important race of my season. Like i learnt before you can do nothing else but re focus and whats going to be up next as a result of the forced schedule change and i am already very motivated on the programme i will do over the nect few weeks instead of spending the time in spain. First i need to get the all clear to get back out on the open rd for training from the doc and inturn the go ahead to pin a number on but expect that to happen at the apsolute latest toward the end of next week. So instead of finetuning my racing pins in the eneco tour in holland last week and packing my backs for 3 weeks of pain in spain, i have been stuck on the home trainer watching television for 3-4hrs each day to keep ontop of my condition as best as possible whilest not aggrivating to much heavy breathing and inturn avoiding aggrivating my pestky fractured rib. While i am very aware that a broken rib is by far a big problem or accompanied but significant pain, being fractured means the bone is weakened and should i crash again which is very common in the stress of such big races and on the same side, another fracture could cause displacement and stick a hole in some vital internal organ which would not be good at all. Then it would be a big problem. While the selfish side of me would be prepared to take the risk as i still feel even with the pain at the moment i could do a good job, the risk of somthing going wrong and jeopising my contribution to the teams effort of the defence of vincenso nibal's crown, and in that form being what i believe to be very much a man for the team the only option is to not be appart of the vuelta team in 2011. So few more days inside before i have another scan and see where the recovery is at later in the week and then i hope start planning my return to the battle fields of the roads of europe for the final couple of months of the 2011 season.

Time to rub a few more kg's of arnica cream on my busted wing and get some shut eye, another big day ahead tomorrow spinning my legs away infront of the television

cjw