I have been a little quiet lately due to a few issues. I thought I would give you all a recap of whats been happening and my plans going forward.
It started on Tuesday the 16th of April right after the Pietermaritzburg national. I was at Tim bentley's place riding his dirt jumps in the evening and as I was pedalling into the lip my chain came off sending me over the bars.... I dislocated my right shoulder, it was really unlucky but thats the nature of our sport. The next day I flew home to decide what to do as it was the second time in 2 years that it had dislocated and the more it happens the easier it gets. I had to decide whether to operate now and miss a couple of races or wait until season end and hope it stays in. It was a tough choice but I eventually decided to do the op and get it over with. I feel it was the right decision and will be the best for my carreer going forward. The only issue was that I had to wait until the 3rd of May to do the op which wasted a lot of time but it had to be done.
Right now its 2 weeks and 5 days after the op and my shoulder is improving everyday. I still do not have full range of motion and it hurts doing certain movements but that is all normal. My strength is not great but at this stage its not too bad and I am able to ride an xc bike on the road from today! I will be getting back onto a downhill bike on the 7th of June for a test run at Paarl before I leave for EU on the 9th. I will not be 100% percent at that stage but I should be pretty good and it will get better and better each week. My recovery plan was 6 weeks which is not ideal, but considering that the general recovery time for an op like this is 12 weeks, I think its pretty amazing so I am not complaining!
I cant wait to get back out there and have the best season ever! Thanks so much to everyone for all the support and all my sponsors, INVESTEC / morewood / red bull / seattle coffee co / cycles africa ( hayes/manitou/odi/sun ringle ) / John Wakefield / science 2 sport / virgin active / spank / csixx / bell helmets / leatt / adidas eyewear / faithwear
I will make you all proud ;)
PS. I have just built up the new race machine!
Until next time...
