Yesterday I didn’t really get very far. I went down to the shop to get my road frame and my cross bikes. Kent wanted to put in a headset and fork. Then he needed to make my seatpost Di2 ready. He had machined some super cool plastic inserts that hold the Di2 battery, but needed to adapt the seatpost to the insert. While we were down there, my friend Phil Gronniger, who was racing, and winning the Steamboat Stage race stopped by. It was cool that we happened to be there.

So, I got kind of a late start out of Steamboat and was told the traffic on I-70 would be horrible trying to get to Denver. Vincent happened to be in Silverthorne, so I stopped there and we went for a couple hour MTB ride. It was really nice, pretty hard, and we just got back before it started raining, which is always nice. Lisa, Vincent’s wife, made us a nice dinner and then we headed down to Denver a little after 8 pm. The traffic had cleared pretty good by then.

So, now I’m in Arvada with still a full day’s drive ahead of me. That’s okay, I kind of like driving. I have a bunch of stuff to do in Topeka since I’ve been gone for over two weeks. I’ve avoided a bunch of super hot weather, which is great. I can’t believe that it is already September.

Kent putting in the headset.

CAD design of my frame.

Kent drilling the ti seatpost for a set screw.

Moose sighting on the ride.

No place for me to sleep with Bromont and Jack hogging the bed.

I seem to be living at the hospital this season. I fell yesterday and jacked up my already bad thumb. Jacked it up enough that I am up at the crack of dawn getting a MRI done on it. The 6 am slot is the only thing they had available. Normally, that is not within my waking hours, but I have to get up to Wisconsin today, so it actually isn’t such a bad time.

I was ridng my MTB and decided to stop at a Walgreens to get something cold to drink. It was hot. Anyway, I rode up by the doors and a little kid came running out. I braked and sort of balanced there for a second, then did a tommy tipover. I’m not sure why I couldn’t/didn’t unclip, but I didn’t. I landed right hand down, thumb first. It was pretty excruciating pain for the better part of a minute. After that it was just painful.

The kid did ask if I was okay. I said yep. He said good because he thought I’d had a heart attack. I thought that was super funny.

I tried to ride, but can really put my hands on the bars. I did 25 miles and my hand fell asleep after 5 minutes every time I tried to hold on tight. I’m sure it will be better by Thursday, when I hope to pre-ride the Chequamegon course.

I am pretty short of sleep the last couple nights, so I’m hoping I can talk Bill into driving some early so I can try to catch up. It is close to 10 hours from Topeka to Cable, so there should be enough time to get in a few hours. Catherine is driving up on Thursday on her own.

I needed to get a MRI done anyway. When I saw Dr. Karen Heiden (Eric’s wife) a couple weeks ago, she said she couldn’t tell anything without one. I’m going to send her the results too. She is a hand surgeon.

I’m not even contemplating not riding the race on Saturday. I’ve hurt this thumb a lot, but not the same as it has been hurt recently. You don’t realize how much you use your thumb on a daily basis until it really doesn’t work at all. You can’t open a jug of milk or orange juice. Forget trying to mount tubeless tires on rims. I spent close to 10 minutes trying to change a flat left handed. Man, did I feel uncoordinated doing that.

Okay, I need to get over there. I hope it doesn’t take all morning.

It is pretty huge.

My shoulder PT sessions are turning more into gym sessions instead of shoulder massages. I think I am going to have to start wearing something other than jeans.

Burt, my physical therapist, taped up my thumb some for support. The tape made it through the ride, but then came off. It was a valiant effort though. Kind of looks like I’m trying to grab Hein and Pat here.