Tale of woe from sunny Italy.

[Grahame]

Ooof. I Hope you heal quickly and get some decent scars (chicks dig scars, right?)

[Graham O]

Andrew,

Hard luck mate. Hope you heel quickly and the bike isn't too bent.

Graham..

[Jon H]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Hope you were wearing clean undies for that trip to hospital, otherwise Mrs G might not be as proud of you as Mr G senior.

[Maria David]

Hi Andrew,

Really sorry to hear about your crash, especially as you'd clearly been preparing for the NC and looking forward to it for ages.

Glad to hear you're not put off this sort of cycling and you'll be back again to do it next year.

Speedy recovery and chin up mate !

By the way, you don't have to wait until next year to go riding in Italy. With a Gran Fondo taking place more or less every week, and with entries available right up to the eve of the races you could be back there next month. Check out the Gran Fondo di Campagnolo (around 17/6) or the Pinarello, a month later. I'm likely to be back in Italy later this year, so will let you know what I'm up to.

[John Czernobay]

"picked myself up, swore, put me chain on and got back on the bike" that's the spirit Andrew, well done, good man. Sorry to hear of the incident but your soon be on the mend and looking forward to the next tour . All the best and look forward to seeing you soon.

John..
PS. Your more then welcome to join the Super 15's this week-end just to ease yourself back in. .

[kieran]

get better soon Andrew, you can wear the road rash with pride anyway!

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Hard luck Andrew - you must be gutted.

Hope recovery is quick.

[Richard (Apples)]

Thats rotten luck Andrew...I know how much you were looking forward to the NC.

I hope you have a speedy recovery .

See you soon

[Sylv]

Bummer Andrew, tough luck. Get well

[jon avery]

Bet your missing the full english and a pint eh?

[Sylv]

Have you got new socks then Sean?

[Andrew G]

A big thank you to everyone for the kind words of support. The road rash is healing okay I think, but never really had it so a bit of guess work.

Like I said a shame to miss the rides, but I'll be going back to catch up. Going down to watch the finish of the NC the heat was really burning hot, so think I would have really struggled anyway with my colouring. Although the temp all week was about 25 to 29 (not a problem for me in the UK) there were no clouds and the sun is completely unfiltered so it is really searing and feels a lot hotter (at least another 5 degrees).

I hope to go next year (I will be trying to drum up some company at some point ) but will move forward to last week of April/first week of May so it's not quite as hot.

Maria, I really don't think I could cope with the summer heat so will have to stick to earlier in the year. I look forward to reading about your exploits though.

Err not EPO level of 50 Sean, I'm not a naughty boy.

"Ematocrito 47.9"
Not sure if this was why I suffered, with less white blood cells to fight my corner, or if it was as a result of the shock?

On the plus side my training fitness won't dissappear overnight so hopefully I won't be knocked back too far, and I know what to keep doing as it seemed to work. Also I'd never ridden long (8k) hills before and didn't find the few I did too bad so I won't have to fear them next year.

See you all soon.