The next couple days are going to be my favorite days of the Olympics. (Not that the road cycling wasn’t great.) Tomorrow is the day for women’s racing. It is the day for MTB and also Triathlon. Both are tomorrow morning. Then on Sunday, men’s MTB.
The MTB is just going to be interesting. I have no prediction for the women’s race tomorrow morning. It is really wide open. On Sunday, I’m going with Nino. It is the only medal the guy is missing and he has been on a roll this year. Like I said before, I’m picking Sagan to finish somewhere between 5-10. I don’t think he has the speed, plus his MTB skills have to be rusty compared to the guys that have been doing this for years, even though he has been training exclusively off-road since the Tour.
The women’s triathlon is hopefully going to be a continuation of same-old by Gwen Jorgensen. She is pretty much undefeated for the past 3 years. She had a couple blips, but those blips were nothing. I follow Gwen pretty closely and she had been focused on this one event for years. Funny how the Olympics dwarf other events. You can win every race for years, but if you don’t win the Olympics, your career is missing something. Doesn’t seem right, but that is the way of sport.
I’m hopefully going to ride some this weekend too. My knee is still super swollen. I know inflammation causes more inflammation, so I’ve been pretty cautious about bending it much. The stitches are healing pretty good and no infection so far, which is mildly surprising. I have been cleaning it a couple times a day, which isn’t in my personality normally. I was thinking about taking some oral antibiotics and now am glad I skipped them.
I picked my brother up yesterday at KU Med in Kansas CIty. They pulled the chest tube out, which he says was the size of a quarter. He seems to be getting around pretty good, at least walking around, but that is probably the pain killers. They sent him home with a backpack full of Schedule 2 pills, which I told him he should take sparingly. He was on oxycotin, oxycodone and fentanyl at the hospital. Bet he sleeps a lot the next few days. He final score was broken collarbone, broken scapula, 6 broken ribs and a collapsed lung that was filling full of liquid. Hopefully the lung has been taken care of. Now the bone healing starts.
Okay, supposed to really storm this afternoon. 70+ mph winds. I like storms, but winds that high sometimes play havoc on infrastructure. No tornadoes predicted though. It is August and that would be pretty unusual.
I rode with Pat and Gwen up to Bayfield County to get their marriage license.
The trispoke that Kris was riding when he fell. I’ve never seen one explode so badly.
This is Tucker on the drive back from Colorado. He was beat. He hasn’t been himself and quit eating yesterday, so he is at the vet today. He had a fever of 103.8, so he doesn’t feel good. Hopefully it is just doggie flu or something.
Tucker’s blood work.
Steve,
It is going to take Kris a while to recover. He has a lot of damage going on. 8 months ago Beverly was attacked at the supermarket. She had 6 broken ribs, a crushed lung and a huge laceration on her head. They ran her over with their car after the robbery. She is still moving kind of slow. In fact, we are not exhibiting at Interbike this year because of how she is. First time in 13 years that we will not be there.
One thing Kris will have to watch for in his healing process is nerve damage. Bev has a bunch of numb areas. When the car tire went over her, it caused a “degloving” effect on her thigh. It separated the fat and dermis from the muscle. Also, the valves on the lymph glads were broken so there was a large amount of fluid being discharged into the separation cavity. It took a pretty intense surgery to fix the glands, reattach the layers and close up the area. There was a nearly one liter seroma (liquid) capsule in there, shaped like an egg, but 14 inches long and 8 inches wide.
Tell Kris to be patient with the healing process. Follow instructions and don’t do anything before he is supposed to…
That IS NOT MTB riding!!!!!!!!!!! That is a freakin bike path. I have done urban rides that honor the sport more than that abomination.
Tman-Not sure what you’re commenting on? If it’s is the photo of Gwen and Pat, Geen is the current World Champion in Triathlon, which competes on the road.
Jesus — so sorry to hear about the assault. Terrible.
Please get Tucker checked for Lyme. My lab has failing kidneys due to Lyme.
Lyme is what I worry about letting my dog run all over in the fields and woods etc, by himself. My brother’s dog got lyme, and then my brother got a bartonella infection somehow (co-infection of lyme) from the dog and he was really sick for almost two years. Hope Tucker is ok.
What’s the blood analysis look like for Lyme? Seems like we could do a little Internet research for Tucker….
Unfortunately, apparently the test for Lyme is a proprietary test so I’m guessing the indicators wouldn’t show up in the standard panel. Hopefully someone who knows what they’re doing can chime in on this…(I am a Doctor in real life, unfortunately a Doctor of Philosophy…)
Given Steve’s position on doping it’s encouraging to see a real world Hct figure up above?
On the other hand if Bjarne Riis was a canine then he probably wouldn’t have his famous nickname either….
I think he’s referring to the XC course in Rio.
hope the little guy bounces back quickly! And same for your brother!
Pretty sure Tilly knows WTF MTB’ing is…. Considering he probably rode a MTB before you were sucking teet! ????
Any chance you could do a post on your brother’s cycling history. You and he seem awfully close and it seems he’s been riding forever. Did he have the same cycling talent?
I would agree about the Rio XC course. If you watch the course videos it is mostly gravel path riding with a few man made features thrown in there, rock sections etc. I don’t think Sagan will win either, but he could do very well. On a course like that, once you preride it a few times and get your lines dialed in, it can really even the playing field between a roadie who came from a MTB past vs. someone like Schurter/Absalon/Kulhavey etc.
Actually, I think it might be well suited to Sagan. It’s golf course mountain biking. As always, the first couple of rows have a huge advantage. So, unless his federation had some cool ranking tricks, I don’t think he’ll podium.
Your winner should come out of the first few rows.
I dunno. Sagan and Nino are both riding full suspension bikes. If the course was that smooth you’d think they’d be on hard tails. I’d imagine they know what they’re in for and what bike will work best for the course. I watched the course video, there are some smooth sections but there are also a fair number of technical sections thrown in the mix as well.
Luke’s is very rare for dogs in colorado, whAt’s the chemistry and UA look like?
Lymes
Lyme disease is very common in Wisconsin where Tucker has been. Ask for the specific test. It can be hard to diagnose.
Kris was getting kind of stir crazy at the house, the hospital drove him nuts, especially the being awakened every hour to get vital signs and the “food”, so I took him out to IHOP for an omelet and some pancakes, took him home pretty quick-like when the painkillers needed a re-up, and then went out and got him 3 quarts of blueberry kefir, a jar of vitamin D3 softgels (2000 IU), and some other stuff. So that was good… Yeah, apparently there were four ribs broken, two of them twice, one break in front, another in back… Not good.
Kris is hardcore. Rode with him a lot back in the day. Maybe a little less predictable in his movements and choices than some of the other folks on the group rides, which meant things were always interesting and challenging.
Steve,
Do you have serum biochemistry profile to go along with that CBC? Tucker doesn’t really have the exposure that would make any of the typical viral diseases of dogs a reasonable concern. But, he does have a lifestyle that puts him at risk for tick-borne and water-borne diseases. Lyme disease basically is a non-existent disease in Colorado and Kansas. Even though his platelet count is currently normal, both Ehrlichiosis and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever would have to be considered, especially if there have been ticks on him or you don’t use a good tick preventive. Sometimes the platelet count plummets a few days after the fever. Leptospirosis, a water-borne infection, would be my other major concern. It certainly is a common infection in Kansas and Colorado. It may present as a brief fever with joint and muscle pain (mimicking Lyme) and then progress to kidney failure. Sometimes it’s just a brief febrile illness. Bartonella is a relatively rare infection, although we occasionally make that diagnosis. But, then I can’t dismiss the possibility of a migrating grass awn or some other reason for his fever. If he isn’t better quickly, please let me know and I’ll help any way I can.