An interesting trip...

So I just returned back home in Athens yesterday after a very unfortunate series of events leading to me being sidelined for a while. I'll get to that...

So my travel to Merced started with a 6am drive to the Atlanta airport. At 6:15 am I was in the car with my sister and we were at a complete stop on I-75 South. When I saw the sign saying "Accident- All Lanes Blocked." I knew I was not gonna make my 8:30 flight. It was a devastating crash to say the least. Let's just say me missing my flight didn't seem to matter once I heard about the horrific accident that had occured.

Once I finally got to the airport, I arranged to get on the next flight at 11:30am. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until we began our take-off. Right as we were up to speed and about to lift off, the pilot aborted the take-off and slammed on the brakes. After coming to a stop, the pilot finally got on the intercom and told us that a plane had crossed the runway about 1/4 mile in front of us and he had to abort lift off. So now we had to wait over an hour and a half to allow the brakes to cool off.

5 hours later I arrived in LAX. I had a short layover thanks to the delays back there to get to Fresno, my final destination. Once in Fresno, I was picked up by Rob our soigneur and drove the team van to the Hotel in Merced. About halfway there we hit more gridlock traffic making the 1hr drive take 2hrs.

Finally I arrived to the Hotel and got some rest.

The next morning the team went out for a spin before the 3pm start for the crit. After an hour or so of easy riding I got pummeled by what felt like paintballs from a passing truck. I had welts on my shoulder and back. I'm not sure exactly what hit me but it left some marks alright. I jokingly told my teammates to avoid my wheel in the race cause things just weren't going my way so far.

Luckily my teammates took my advice because 1hr into the crit, I got tangled with another rider and hit the deck. I tried to stand and knew immediately something was wrong. I couldn't apply any pressure to my left leg, so standing was out of the question. I got assistance from some people and got to the side of the road. After the meds checked me out, I got a ride from our team chiropractor to the Merced Medical center for some X-Rays. 3 hours later, my hip was deemed fracture free and I was on my way back. A few days rest and we would re-evaluate. Obviously the next days 200k road race was out of the question.

The next morning I got a call from the medical center; I had a feeling what they were going to say. The radiologist had taken a look at my X-Rays and found a crack in my Pubis Rami section of the pelvis. My hip was fractured and I was gonna be out for at least a few weeks. I made a few phone calls and 3 hours later, I had it worked out to fly out that night with the rest of the team.

Once I arrived at the airport, I was greeted with the inconvenience of not having my name on the flight list.
I called Delta right away and I found out the guy at Delta who changed my ticket actually put me on a flight for the next day. So after an hour and a half of horrifying hold music, I got on the next flight. 5 hours of red eye flying I arrived at the Atlanta airport amazingly in one peice. I think Merced is just bad luck for me. Or something.