Tim Gudsell

Hey folks,

You may or may not have been wondering where I have been for the last 6 weeks, if you were thanks, if not fair enough.  Basically I have been MIA to be honest. I know I said I’d report in 5 weeks ago, but there hasn’t exactly been much to write home about.  After the news of no surgery and 6 weeks in a cast it took me longer than even I expected to get my head around the long road ahead I faced to get back to competition.

First I started thinking of other ways to hold onto any form possible.  So I tried the pedal boat…

Though that got a little expensive at 10 bucks an hour, when I normally get paid to turn pedals.  So I took to it on foot…

Then after a full 2 and half weeks off the rig, I felt ready to get serious again.  So this is where I’ve been hiding for the last 4 weeks.

I quite quickly hammered out all my music worth listening to, so then it was onto the TV series “Entourage”.  4 seasons in 4 weeks.  It got me through many sweaty brain cell killing hours of erg torture.

So yesterday there I was rocking on in to see the hand specialist grinning from ear to ear with the thought of getting my hand back.  He ended up being rushed into emergency surgery so I took the time to get the cast off and do a check up x-ray.  It took longer than expected so we wandered off into town for an arvo brew and I just enjoyed getting used to the feel of my hand again.  A few hours later that smile turned upside down once again.  The specialist liked the look of the healing scaphoid, but was not willing to risk anything and so just like that slapped another cast on and said come see me again in 3 weeks, then we’ll talk about a smaller plastic splint.

I guess it’s just about the expectations really.  Of course I know the importance of the bone healing well, but the initial set back felt very long.  Now 9 weeks in a cast is starting to feel veeery long.  I can get out on the road but it won’t be full gas training for a while yet.

So the season gets put back even further.  I still hope to start the Route du Sud in late June but the real start to my season will be the Tour de Region Wallonie in late July, with the plan on preparing for the Tour of Spain.

After a 6 week break from checking in on here, I will be dropping you all a line more often now, hopefully with interesting and positive news.

Thanks for reading

Guddy