Oly's Accident

Oliver became close friends with the concrete trail on Saturday. He was 80 miles into what ended up being a 104 mile bike ride, when he was standing up, pedaling with all his might up a hill, going about 18mph. His rear wheel somehow came detached, as I understand it, and locked up, and he hit the pavement, bike and all. He wears shoes that 'clip' into his pedals, so he was attached to his bike, as they both skidded along the pavement for 15 feet. Thankfully both Oly and his bike lived to tell the tale, but the scrapes they each received were deep.

The first photo below is one taken by one of his riding buddies. It shows how skewed the handlebar was. As you can see, it's pretty much parallel to the front wheel, and it should be perpendicular. What you can't see is a screw on the front that is sheared down to being unadjustable, several deep gashes in the handlebar itself, and some nice scratches on our brand new (never been out of the box before Saturday's ride) GPS unit. What some of you may not know about Oly is that he is very much a perfectionist and *hates* having his things damaged. While everything is still functional, it's no longer 'perfect', and he's not enjoying that too much. :)

This photo is of the scrapes on his right arm. Not too terrible, but still pretty painful.

This is his left arm, which looks a lot worse in person. He lost several layers of skin, down to a layer of something white (fat, I'd assume - I told him those are drastic measures to be taken in the weight-loss competition we're having... literally scraping the fat off instead of losing it the right way!). It is still very painful to touch, but I keep making him let me put antibiotic ointment and bandages on it a few times a day.

He also has a softball-sized bruise on his thigh (from his handlebar, I assume), which is swollen and hot to the touch, and a nice scrape across his chest, as well as some chest tenderness. I thought he should get an x-ray to check for cracked ribs, but he refused, and his doctor (our friend Tony) also said it wouldn't change anything at this point, so no need.

He was pretty bloody when he got home. I can't believe he rode another 25 miles after that happened! Thank goodness for adrenaline, I guess.