What I hoped was just some bruised ribs was a not. A friend told me that bruised ribs will get better every day while broken ribs will only get worse for about a week. I experienced the much worse scenario. Man, breaking those little bones really hurts.
After the crash last Saturday I rested for a couple days. I thought maybe I could get back out there on Tuesday. I attended our normal CX training ride with some of my Rio Strada teammates. It was a high-intensity ride that more closely resembled a mountain bike ride on CX bikes—rocks, mud, singletrack, and some tough climbing. I hung tough because of my fitness right now, and my fresh legs because of the time off, but the pain was intense. Pulling on the bars on steep climbs and running with the bike hurt really bad.
On Wednesday I was completely wrecked. It hurt to breathe, sit, walk, lie down, everything. There was no escaping the pain. That training ride was a really bad idea.
So I have these broken ribs. I tried to come back but could not. The last race was today and I was not there.
I really regret skipping race five now, since I have only five race results to everyone else's six. Grass Valley was a hilly course, like the ones I usually excel at. Even six points for a fifth place would have moved me up significantly.
Even so, a top 10 is cool all things considered.
