Hello everyone!
It’s been a while since my last blog and a lot of things have happened in the meanwhile.
Our sport is beautiful, but sometimes it can also be dangerous.
On June 12th I crashed out of The Women’s Tour with a dislocated multi fragmented wrist and for the first time in my career I had to face the challenge of dealing with a broken bone.
I remember that, while I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital after the crash, I was already thinking “Will I be able to still compete in Giro Rosa?”. Not that it is my favorite race, but this year it would have been a special Giro for me as the peloton passed through my home town and finished in Udine, the city where I attended school and where many friends of mine live.
My team, who have always supported me in the best way and this time even more, straight away told me “Elena, you will be back only when you will be totally healed and when your bone will be again in one piece”.
The suggestion from the Doctors who did my surgery was to ride my bike on the road after 5 weeks and to start racing again after 6/7 weeks. No Giro for me then.
On and off my bike, I am the kind of person who loves to have a clear plan in my mind and, at the beginning of the day, even better of the week or of the month; knowing what I am going to do and at what time is important to me.
This help me to have control over my life, I don’t like unpredictable things.
But this time was different. A couple of days after my surgery, I clearly understood that I would not have been able to plan my recovery. The only thing I could do was waking up in the morning and check how my wrist was doing. Try to move it and see if it was better than the day before or not.
The first 10 days after my crash were the easiest one. I had so many things to think about, so much people coming to visit me and so many messages to reply to that I had no time to be upset or worried. Not having to train meant catching up with friends I didn’t see from a long time, walking with my dog and spending a lot of time with my parents, which has been absolutely lovely.
Then, I had some very bad days where I really didn’t know what to do. In that days I really understood boredom can be so frustrating and somehow kills your happiness.
Luckily, when I really started to miss my bike it was almost time to restart with some training on the rollers, which I really enjoyed despite the heat and the grit required to practice indoor training while outside the sun is shining and the only thing you would like to do is riding your bike into the mountains.
Indeed, I reached the highest point of happiness when the Doctors gave me the green light to ride outside with the only limitation to keep my cast on.
Felling fresh air in the face and sun on my back is something I will never take for granted again.
Being healthy is the biggest gift life can give us. Now that I am healthy again, even the pain in my legs feels sweeter.
Everything happens for a reason and in the last weeks I started to appreciate again the fatigue of trainings, the travels to the races, being surrounded by the people I love and who trust me.
With a metal plate in my wrists refreshed mind and a lot of dreams in my heart I am ready for the last part of the season! Bring it on!!!
My next races are: GP PLOUAY and then Tour of Ardeche (and hopefully Worlds).
Elena
