I was involved in the first big crash of the day, 13 minutes into the race. Some guy hit a minivan on the side of the road and bounced into the field. This happened three guys in front of me. I was over the bars and lying behind the van in the mud almost immediately because we were going about 50kph when it happened.

I layed there and watched what seemed like the scene from Blue Brothers with the cop cars all flying into a pile while the sirens would wane off mid-air. Guys would yell, fly, land. About 30 of them, and I saw them all as I lay there in disbelief. I got up grabbed my bike, and didn’t say anything into the radio, because well, all seemed intact. I got back on, and made my way back up to the peloton and back to the front to help follow more moves.

Eventually after nothing went and after we avg 51kph for the first 1.5 hours we called a, “Pisse”, or urine break, and then regrouped and began racing again. Cozza was in the next move after this, with 8 other guys, which was great because everyone was content to let it roll as we passed through the feed zone.

I was hurting bad at this point, tired, and we still had the cobbled climbs to go, so I’m loving life. We hit the climbs and immediately I’m losing ground. When you’re tired, you hit every stone face first, and suffer every meter of it. Eventually the group split again and there were 3 groups on the road. I’m in the 3rd group with a few of my guys, Tyler is in the 2nd group, and Cozza/Masskant who is now bridging the gap to the front group are up the road. We go over another climb, i’m in the cars, I just kept fighting, eventually made it back to the group, which eventually made it to the 2nd group on the road, and now we are the field again. This is good, I mean 2 guys from Slip in the break, and i’m not dropped from the effort yesterday.

At about 150 km and back in the field, I notice my right knee is really beginning to ache. I’m trying to pin-point where the pain is, and notice it’s on the inside lower portion of my right knee. Think to myself that It’s probably nothing big, and that I can finish. It get a bit worse as we near the circuits, and I tell myself that maybe I should just pull over at the feed zone on the circuit. We only have 20 km to go though, so I finish. My knee is pretty painful. I complained to Alyssa, one of our swanny’s about it who looks at it, gives me some advice, and off to the showers I go.

Flying home I’m thinking about it, but not too seriously.

Wake up the next day, and it’s sore, really sore, and I pin point it and hit up google for some self diagnosis. It’s near the joint line, interior meniscus area. I go see the Chiro, Matt Rabin who is in town visiting. He takes a gander, some tests, and says I probably smacked it pretty good, or twisted the knee as I went over the bars while the foot was still engaged in the pedal. Either way it’s not too bad, just some severe bruising. We taped it up, and now I shall ice every hour for 15 minutes.

So, taking a few days completely off the bike. As I sit here and type this it’s about 80% better than it was yesterday, and should be better yet. I will spin for 20 minutes today, and see how it goes, ice again, and then depart for northern France tomorrow morning.

Start of Roubaix Camp #2