Busted up – No Loretta’s GNCC for me

I wish I had a photo of how swollen my wrist got after the Big Buck GNCC but I don’t.  Should have thought of taking that photo when I had the chance. 

At some point between when I whiskey throttled and when I tumbled down the trail I dinged my wrist on that opening lap in Union, SC.  Not certain how it all happened but I suspect that I had small gap between my palm and the grip when I brushed a nearby tree.  The bars jerked and impacted my palm or fingers.  It might have been my palm or fingers because I was diagnosed with a severe sprain by an ER Physician’s Assistant but later got a phone call from the radiologist saying that I fractured a small bone in my hand (metacarpal). So which is it – a sprain or a fracture?  I have not gone for a follow up visit yet so I don’t know which diagnosis to believe.  Either way, the treatment is the same – immobilization and rest.  And regardless of whether I hyper-extended my wrist or have a compression fracture, I’m out for a little while. 

The saving grace is that I didn’t break my navicular bone. 

The first few days after crashing were tough.  I was hard on my self for falling and pissed that I got hurt and put the next race at Loretta’s out of reach.  My wrist and hand hurt and icing wasn’t helping.  But by mid week, just 4 days or so after Big Buck, I started to see some improvement and my motivation to do better at GNCC races returned.  I’ve got a plan to do better when I do return to GNCC racing.

There is a D16 hare scramble just 10 minutes from my house this weekend so I’ll head over there to help out.  Joe will fly solo to Atlanta, pick up the van and trailer then head over to Loretta’s for the race.  Wish I was going to at least help out but I’m not. 

In lieu of having a race to write about, here are some miscellaneous photos that have been taking up space on my camera for too long. 

That’s Suzuki Shane, Suzuki’s Factory Team coordinator.  Shane is the one who’s helped put all the Suzuki riders in the top 10 at these past few races.  He’s also the one that’s helped Joe put his clutch back together and made my bike sing with perfect jetting.  Shane has a thing for high-end road bicycles so be sure to ask him about his collection the next time you see him.

This is Barney Barns, Pirelli’s on-site tech.  Barney puts in some long days changing tires, coping with bitchy riders, little-league dads and cold or hot weather but he always has time for a chat and a smile.

I’d never seen dozers with such narrow blades before.  They are just wider than a quad so they can make or repair most of the GNCC courses.  The dozers must have come from another industry – logging or timber, perhaps? – but thank god they are here.  They usually repair the course after the quads race so we can actually have a decent course to ride on.

At a few of the GNCC rounds this year they have these utility ATV races.  They’re all wheel drive and powered by big displacement v-twin engines but have primitive suspension.  The passengers looked like they took a beating during the race.

This part of the course was greasy so the drivers had their hands full.  The four wheel, mud slinging drifts were fun to watch.

We often ride the course on mountain bikes the day before our race.  Here’s Joe checking in with home.  Note the hard to ride in mud boots and southeast clay and roots.

Often on our clean up day we end up with a variety of foods that we hate to toss out.  We usually eat an odd combination meal while our laundry dries and the meal usually takes place in the parking lot of the laundromat.