Christopher Rowley: Update -some graphic images

So stage 3 of Catskills was going good. I made it over the first batch of climbs in the lead group. After the feed zone there was a long downhill. All I remember was a loud bang, and then I was sliding across the asphalt. Garmin revealed I was travelling at over 70km/h when I went down. I thought "I should be rolling and not sliding", hoping not to get so much road rash. I came to a stop though before I could start rolling. Confused as to what the hell happened, I got up in pain and moved to the side of the road. The race director got out of the car and started to check up, classic first aid style. At this point I realized something was wrong with my shoulder and I was down most of a finger nail. 4 or 5 riders also went down about 50m up the road. After I got home and inspected everything I noticed my front tire was ripped in two spots. I have come to the conclusion that there was something sharp like glass on the road. No idea why I went down so fast, I thought I would have been able to ride something out like that for a bit, as my tire was still on the rim. The people up the road were apparently brought down by Gaelan Merritt who flatted his tubular but was able to ride it out a bit and slow down before going down.

I refused the ambulance trip to the hospital because I didn't have my travel insurance information on me and I didn't want to make a shitty situation any worse. Robert Gutgesell's dad was following the pack and was able to give me a ride to where I was staying. I managed to get my stuff and Richard Bartolo finished cleaning and packed the car. We checked out and headed to Albany Medical Centre. I got great service here, as soon as I got there, they gave me some pain meds and I was given a room. I got sent for a bunch of x-rays and came back with diagnosis of broken scapula. Before I left they removed the rest of my finger nail, cleaned some of the wounds and stitched up my knuckle (you'll see why in the picture). Finally got to eat just after midnight after picking up the pain meds to get me through the next few days.

After getting back to Canada I got my shoulder re-xrayed and was told I was lucky the break was away from the ball and socket joint. Also it wasn't displaced so no surgery is required. Also now thinking the grass I sat in on the side of the road had poison ivy as my legs are now covered with a rash. Awesome, right? However, this is season ending for me as I won't be back outside on a bike for another month. Really sad to have my season end this way. I was excited for the upcoming race schedule with stage race in Mississippi Mills, maybe Green Mountain stage race, and of course the Centurion Prospects Challenge.

Really sweet to look at the garmin graph and see the steep drop off in speed at the end: here

Anyway, here are some pictures of the wounds. It could have been much worse so I will count my blessings.