Contributing factors: This was the first time riding this course*. I decided to take the inaugural spin on the tires and wheel that came with my Cervelo*. Strava does influence behavior*.
Everything started well enough but I began feeling frisky and decided to try and grab some Strava segments, if possible. The route took us downhill around some curves. Just as I thought to myself that I was going really fast around the road and wondering if I was going to impress my riding mates, the road went from wet to dry while I was going about 31 miles per hour.
As accident victims often recount, things happened in slow motion and I remember my wheels losing traction on the road. I can't remember for sure if I tried to brake or if it was already too late but I knew I was going down and I just wondered to myself how bad it would be. I didn't think it would be a deadly accident but I quickly made peace with whatever the outcome was.
As it turned out, my right hip hit first and took a large portion of the impact. My momentum was carrying me forward still and rotated my body clockwise. I remember seeing my vision panning down quickly to a direct impact with the pavement. I may have been out for a second or two (still need to confirm) but fortunately I was wearing a helmet (which I cracked). Unfortunately, there was some slack in my chin strap and the friction of the pavement pulled the helmet up resulting in may face in the area above and below my eye scraping against the ground.
The next thing I knew I picked myself up off the ground while a quickly growing pool of blood collected. I did not feel any pain so I patted myself down to take inventory and see if anything was seriously hurt. I didn't find anything but chunks of skin were taken out from numerous parts of my body. I walked over to the side of the road to sit down as a friend pulled my bike off the road and tried to warn the rest of the folks in our group. I put the dorsal side of my gloves against the gash around my eye not really knowing the full extent of my injury. I did notice the reaction it elicited and that scared me more than anything.
My friends found some help up the road and a kind samaritan, Paul Williams stayed with me and Andrea and drove us up to a more visible intersection. A headache came on about this time but I was never in excruciating pain. He drove us to Jefferson County Hospital in W.Va where I got treatment.
I was seen pretty quickly and they reviewed me to assess the extent of my injuries. Tetanus shot. Knees scraped (left pretty badly), right hip road rash, right shoulder road rash, elbows scraped, chunks out of my hands, and then a stellate laceration of my right eyebrow and cheek. Head and facial CT scans were both negative. They cleaned out all the cuts and sutured me up. They also strongly encouraged me to see a plastic surgeon the following day (had it not been a holiday) to see about some suture revision. As it turns out and despite trying to work the network, nobody would see me until that Friday, 5 days after the crash. Here are the pics... As you can see, there were a couple places where there was no skin to stitch.
Before stitches:
After Stitches:
The Day After:
After 6 Days:
After 2 Weeks:
So, although it is looking better, it will definitely need to be re-worked by a plastic surgeon. My first visit was entirely uneventful so I suspect it may be a while before I can get anything done do it.
Next time, I just need to slow down.
