On The Pegs July 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 7 | Page 58

On The Pegs
wasn’t my best finish, but I honestly felt
really happy with my riding and knew
what I had to work on leading up to
round 2 at Erzberg.
I was really excited to make my return
to the Iron Giant and I had a couple re-
ally good training days with Cory Graf-
funder and Kyle Redmond leading up
to it. After walking parts of the course
all week, I felt like I had it in me to step
on top of the podium at the finish. My
bike in Europe had been really work-
ing awesome and I had the confidence
to make it happen. I qualified day 1 of
the prologue quite well, finishing in
10th. A lot better than that previous
year when I barely cracked the top 40.
I didn’t even need to go out on day 2
and actually debated forfeiting my run
to go do more walking. Well, I suited
up anyways because I’m a competitor
at heart and crashed super hard within
a minute of my run. I swapped badly
at high speed on a rocky section of the
course. I jumped to my feet amazed I
wasn’t badly injured and kept making
my way up the mountain. Right away
I knew I messed myself up pretty bad
because I was in quite a bit of pain.
Further up the mountain, I stood up
through a rough section and instantly
sat back down because I could tell I
had jacked up my knee. I’ve never had
a serious knee injury before and you
can tell right away when something has
gone wrong. Not long after that was
when I figured my foot was probably
broken again as well. After making the
long trek to the top on the prologue
roads, I cruised back to the paddock
P 58
and changed into normal street clothes
to go get checked out by the med-
ics again (two races in a row). My me-
chanic, Robbie Goolsby, drove me to
the hospital and I ended up breaking
my foot, finger, and had some internal
knee damage. I was so bummed that
my shot at Erzberg had ended and I felt
bad that I had not only let myself down,
but everyone back home in the states
as well.
Once I got home, which was extreme-
ly tough, I went to a few specialists and
I ended up tearing my MCL. Luckily no
surgery was required and now I’m here
trying to heal. I’ve been quite bored so
I ended up buying a vintage bike that
I’ve been restoring. It’s helping pass the
time and I really enjoy it. As for now, I’m
just going to keep on healing and I plan
on seeing everyone at the Tennessee
Knockout in August. n