The first week of the year as i said in my previous Blog was mega, loads of cycling and a bit of running thrown in, my wife got a load of running in too plus we got to spend some nice time relaxing too which is always a bonus, it seems every time we spend any amount of time in the UK there's always a million and one little things that need doing and they always end up going from a five minute thing to an all day thing, don't know how it happens so i guess i'll just be grateful that we're in a position where if something does take all day i can make it happen regardless!!!
Travelling back on Monday the 9th one of the most painful things to ever happen to me happened, sitting here typing it it could be a movie script and sounds so far fetched that it's almost hard to believe, basically without going into a load of detail we got left with nowhere to go and drove straight into the side of a side on stationary crashed car at getting on for about 70mph, then after bringing my wife back around, kissing and checking my children i got out of the van, stood there in the pitch black looking around wondering what on earth had happened, looked at the already crashed vehicle i'd hit and then as if out of nowhere i heard this screeching noise, turned 180 degrees to see another car skidding towards my van, i waved my arms above my head trying to warn the car but he'd already lost control, he smashed straight into the back of my van right in front of my eyes while my wife and children were still inside but glanced off the van and whilst at the last split second i attempted to jump to safety the car hit me, ran over my leg and at the same time flipped me off my feet smashing the back of my head on the floor, there i was with what i was convinced was a broken leg/ankle and feeling all a bit fuzzy not knowing if the impact had done anything to my wife and children, i remember laying there screaming for what seemed like forever, i tried crawling towards my van agin then a couple more cars smashed into each other and i just didn't know what to do, eventually a couple of French guys came running over and in broken French i told them to drag me to my car, shortly after i saw my wife and children the ambulances and police etc all turned up and we were all taken to the local hospital...
Since getting back to the UK i've been flat out trying to get fixed up after the accident. In france they missed the broken bones in my foot and it took 5 days until a further x ray back in Spain revealed the broken bones, i absolutely couldn't wait to get home to get some proper Dr's on it, that said the upper body workout of being on crutches had been handy ;-)
Three weeks to the day of the accident and my treatment's finished, i'd already been walking, well hobbling without crutches for 3 or 4 days before that final treatment and i have to say a massive thank you to Brian Simpson for all his and the girls at his clinics help, i now have a removable splint and bandage so that i can get my foot in my cycling shoes again as with the splint and bandage it's too big to fit, i still have to use it for another couple of weeks but yesterday i took it off and got in 50km's on the push bike, do you know what, it was probably 60% sleet, 30% snow and 10% rain but i've never been so happy to get out training again!!! Today i went up to Milton Keynes to meet my trainer for a core gym session which was pretty cool, i also picked up my new mountain bike from the top top guys at Corley cycles who are once agin sponsoring me this year, i'm really hopeful of competing in some cycling races/ sportives in their team colours this year, it should be fun, there's even been a proper challenge mentioned which i'm up for.. cycling from London to Paris in 24 hours in one hit, that's hardcore, i'll take a view on that one for now but it would be pretty cool!!!!
As you will have seen by now there's an all new shakey.com website up and running, it's something we've been working on for a while, NYTA the guys who run my site suggested a Big update using all sorts of different platforms to deliver a much slicker site, sure, there's some parts of the site that have been dropped which is a bit of a shame but they explained that things like forums just aren't being utilised nowhere near enough to even consider keeping them going, i actually posted a link on my forum asking what needed to be improved to make the forums better and i think we got maybe 30 or 40 replies, i guess that kind of made the decision, i hope no one gets too upset and who knows, they're gone for now but there's a comments section on the new site and if enough people ask it's not impossible to bring the forums back, anyway, lets hope that some of the new features out weigh the loss of one feature!!!
I've been speaking a fair bit with the team lately, everything seems to be coming together very nicely, my crew chief and the team co ordinator have just returned from France after picking up 5 brand new engines from Akira who built some of the WSB motors and they're very happy with what we've got, all the other bits and pieces are coming together nicely so probably next week sometime the first bike will be built, i know the plan is to get a run out somewhere in the UK for a quick shakedown towards the end of this month then we're off to Portugal and Spain for loads of riding throughout march, i absolutely cannot wait to start, it's worked out pretty well with my foot being hurt because the initial plan was to start testing a little earlier which might've been a bit sore!!!
That's you guys well and truly up to speed now with all that's happened and is happening so i'm going to sign off now, my debut on the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki may well have happened by the time i do my next Blog but follow me on Twitter @67shakey to hear all about it before i get round to typing another full on Blog, talk to you all soon, take it easy, Shakey #67!!!
Lot of Kawasaki's in BSB this season, what's making them the weapon of choice this season?
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