Don't Call it a Comeback: The Two week Turn-around From Coma to Racing

Two weeks ago I experienced the worst crash of my career. Something that left me unconscious and completely unresponsive. Thankfully I had some luck on my side and woke up mid CAT Scan, after being dead to the world for 4 hours. Hearing the words "You're a very lucky boy" shortly after. I really was not sure what was going on. Finally after some self exploration, I realized what had happened, without any sort of recollection of the event that passed.

The next week was one that was full of surprises. The first few days out of the hospital going to the bathroom and moving out of my room seemed to be a hard task. Finally mid week I was able to walk to the end of the block and back without a lot of pain. Eventually the end of the week came and the stitches and staples were to come out. 

Having staples pulled out of your head is about as fun as getting them put in. I was fine with getting the stitches taken out, but the staples were just a little much. As I was putting my jacket on, I experienced something new and it felt like all the life was getting pulled out of me. And slowly again, I was unconscious with people standing over me. Not sure if the ordeal was just too much for me or having metal yanked from my head was too much, but the end result was me on the ground. Thankfully, the nurse made sure I was ok and I stayed most of the day in bed, since I was not feeling anywhere close to myself. 

Thankfully as the weekend came I started to feel more and more like a human being and a return to training seemed pretty possible for Monday. After a quick check with the nurse and cleaning of my wounds, I was cleared to get back on my bike and that I did. I felt a granted freedom and happy to be back doing the thing I loved. Everyday the legs felt better and better as the time on the bike increased. Thursday, Albert had confirmed that I would be racing Sunday. As Friday came along, I also got thrown on the roster for Saturday's race.

Coming back into action from a crash like that is hard no matter if you remember it or not. Especially after taking a week completely off and laying in bed recovering from it. As we headed to St. Christophe on Saturday, I was extremely nervous. I wasn't entirely sure how the legs would feel and how I would feel in the peloton. 

As we kitted up I tried to be as positive as possible and Antoine told me to just get the legs back today and race calm. So that was a little more comforting, knowing there wasn't a lot of pressure from the team. The race was on from the gun, as there were various primes along the outer loop before hitting the local laps. I felt a little nervous in the group, and the legs felt surprisingly ok going up the climbs. I found myself in the front 10 riders over the first KOM and was kind of surprised. 


As we progressed I had a front flat and drifted back into the caravan, but we had no car there. So I rode into the next town and waited for the broom wagon behind the last group of riders. It was my first experience riding in the broom wagon and it wasn't the best. I was happy to get back in the car and ride home after the long day. Thankfully for our team, Kelvis was able to nab third and Stefan was able to get an award for his aggressive riding. 

Personally, I was approaching Sunday with far less expectations. I was told it was a 5km circuit, with a 2km long climb that topped out at 20%. We were set to do 20 laps. So being the amazing climber I am, I was out to get some fitness for the race.  

Not having any idea where we were going, we ended up having a three hour car ride to St. Georges-Buttavent. Eventually we arrived after lots of circles in roundabouts and some rally-esque driving on country roads. The town was having some sort of fair and there was definitely the biggest crowd I had seen at a race since crashing in Loches. Mentally for me this left sucking less of an option and venturing into the pain cave a large probability. As the race got underway, the pace was high again from the start. An early break was established and we had a rider in it. This made it easier for us, just following wheels and not having the responsibility to control the race. Hitting the second time up the climb, I had another puncture. Thankfully I was able to get a spare wheel this time and get back to the peloton. 


 Being such a short course it seemed that the climb was always coming. Fortunately, every time I was making the selection and midrace I was actually hearing people cheer my name. It is only recognizable because "Garrett" isn't exactly something that rolls off a French speaker's tongue. Another funny thing that I noticed was English in the peloton. It caused me to have a double take. Sure enough, two Estonian riders introduced themselves shortly after. They said they heard about the crash in Loches and were amazed I was racing so fast. As the laps closed down, with 3 to go the break had caught us. It brought the group to maybe 15 riders and the field was not sure if we were getting neutralized after that. With two to go, a barrage of attacks started as we hit the climb I made it 50% up and then just locked up. I wanted to ride it out but Albert was happy and told me to shut it down.  


Thankfully Stefan had attacked and had enough horsepower to stick it and take the win solo. So all in all a pretty successful ride for Team Bigot. Personally it was a great confidence builder to make it so far in such a hard race, especially coming back from what had happened two weeks ago.  


As another week starts, we will be racing only this weekend, so it provides some great training all week to prepare for the upcoming races. After the confidence gained Sunday, this next weekend is going to be a great showing!