Rider Down.

One of my favorite riders to race against (even though he kicks my ass in just about every discipline) just went down and broke his collarbone. Chris Knott managed to fall down while riding his bike and do an impressive amount of damage. The way it looks to me, a highly trained ignoramus, surgery is in his future. Knowing Chris, he'll opt for the carbon fiber model that is guaranteed to save 300 watts over a 15K TT, meaning he'll stomp me just that much worse.
  
Collarbones just seem to be a rite of passage. When I was fat(ter), I fell down plenty, but I choose to believe I was insulated from the impacts by my protective layer of blubber. Now, stripped of that padding and any illusion of muscle, my upper body is more vulnerable to getting beat up. When my doctor asked me how it happened and I said cycling, he said he figured as much. Seems like we keep a surgical cottage industry employed.
  
Then again, I've fallen down a bunch this year for various reasons (mostly incompetence). I've lost a significant amount of skin, but the collarbone was the one that stopped me in my tracks for a while. Sure, the Fairbanks fall made life a little difficult and I still bear the scars, but it was nothing like feeling the broken bones grinding together- especially when it jolted me out of sleep. It's been a couple weeks since I last felt the ache up there, and I honestly don't miss it. A little lump remains where the bones healed together, and I keep telling myself that maybe it will be a little more structural sound in the future. Not something I'd care to repeat, and my wife would rather not hear me whine like that ever again.
  
Knowing Chris, he'll bounce back from this and make my life even harder next year. It may be unpleasant in the short term, but next spring I'll be bleeding out of my eyes to hold his wheel again, hoping he'll make a mistake in the sprint (he never does).
  
Get well soon, Chris.
 

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 31, 2016 at 7:57 AM

    Thanks Mike!

    At least my broken collarbone happened during the offseason. You had the added mental pain of having it happen right before the Tour of Anchorage. Watching us race as you suffered through this type of pain was certainly adding insult to injury.

    And you will soon have the added pleasure of absolutely crushing me in Zwift. With you riding those hundreds of thousands of miles around Biloxi and getting a jump on base training it won't be hard for you to easily ride past me WHILE finishing a Frozen Booger. My virtual lifeless body will step off in awe. Even the blue guys will be laughing.

    At least I'll have my two best friends with me for support. My new riding buddies are Mr Percocet an Mr Oxycodon. We go everywhere together.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alaska Fat CyclistOctober 31, 2016 at 1:03 PM

    You'll probably come back properly rested and will crush us all with your superior (if now misshapen) physique. My broken collarbone just spared me getting humiliated again at the Tour of Anchorage.

    Crushing people on Zwift is a lot easier than in real life. Even a fatty like me can find someone slower on the global stage.

    ReplyDelete

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