Tim Gudsell

I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve left a medical facility in the last 18 months without any idea of what I’m going to do next, and just headed for the nearest pub……

Yesterday I had a follow up appointment with the surgeon to see whether I was going to have surgery to stabilise the fracture in my left wrist. After discussion with other surgeons he had decided it was too complicated to operate and so I walked out of the clinic with a cast on my arm again. What will follow is 1 month in a cast and sling while trying to mobilise my elbow (which is also fractured but not as bad), then hopefully the cast will be downgraded to a splint. I understand this is not the end of the world, but am struggling with yet another set back, so Sarah and I are heading away for a few days to try and process it all.

On Sunday even though I hadn’t planned to ride Roubaix this year I was really g’d up for the race, eager to complete my job of protecting Fred Guesdon an completing the 260km of madness. It started sweet enough, everything was going well, the fans were out, the sun was shining and the atmosphere was buzzing! I met Roly on the startline and we were both amped to be there.

My role changed early in the race as my team missed the 19-man break away, so I was forced to ride the front in a block head wind for 50km. Having already used up a lot of juice in my legs when the fight started for the first section of pave I found myself at the back of the peloton, though I didn’t stress and took it easy to the first feed station. I spent the next few sections of pave recovering and dodging crashes. Then just before the Arenberg I started moving up the peloton to support Fred, as this is always the first decisive part of the race. Here my day turned upside literally, as I was caught up in  a 6-10 man pile up. As luck would have it it was on a flat, smooth stretch of road but a piece of road furniture had caused a ruckus.

I felt I landed pretty lightly and my bike was sweet, so I remounted remembering Kevin Tobatta telling me when I was a junior, “whenever you crash, get back on and give it 5″, so I did just that.  Except while attempting to pass Le tranche d’Arenberg I could only manage to hold the handlebars with one hand. I found a lift with an Euskatel Team Support car where I was later joined by Stuart O”Grady who was enjoying watching his team mate Fabian Cancellara’s amazing victory as I tried to ignore my gigantic elbow and wrist which were both increasing in size by the minute.

So I’m off, I’ll talk to you next week when I’m in a better mood.

Yours, a once again broken Guddy

Assuming the position...