Dear All
Following an accident on Thursday, I was forced to consider how best to manage what happened.
I had only just got over Achilles heel when the accident wrenched the same ankle and has caused further problems. I was forced to stop early on what had promised to be a good day.
The staff at the local target pharmacy were great and assisted as best as possible and ibuprofen with heavy strapping seemed to help. However a short ride of 30 miles Friday caused more pain and further inflammation and another 5am attempt Saturday morning lasted 1hour. I simply can not push enough weight through the foot.
I have lost three days of riding so far and estimating 5 days of rest for my ankle will see me about 1100 miles in deficit with still no guarantees.
I have looked at how to make this up and keep moving forward. Internal flights, Amtrak trains and long distance buses have all been considered, traveling with a cycle is a logistical mountain and expensive hindrance with significant additional cost and drain on budget. Multiple modes of transport and different schedules would have to be taken and I wouldn’t be able to achieve what is required for the challenge. I would simply be throwing good money after bad.
I’ve also considered cutting right back the mileage and doing this the tourist way but again time is against me with deadlines for flights and extra expense those changes will incur. I’m also risking permanent injury on the ankle.
The most practicable, economical and sensible thing to do is for me to return home. My heart states otherwise.
I’m heartbroken by what has happened, 18 months of hard work and significant personal investment has been wiped out as well as all the places I wanted to visit, things to see and people to meet. Then there is the burden of disappointment that I know people will have, people such as CSR and Red2Green who believed in what I wanted to achieve.
Those people around me and who know me will also know how much all this meant to me.
To those people all I can do is apologise and thank you for your support. You have no idea of how dreadful I feel about the situation.
For the next few days I will be concentrating on getting home, recovery and coming to terms with everything and trying to recover some costs.
Right now I need my family.
Happy cycling…
Steve
Everyone at CSR wished Steve a speedy recovery and give him our best wishes
