And then it ended, just like that

To say the 2009 season has been a mess is a bit of an understatement. Between the stresses of work and home life, let alone bike-related mishaps, things haven't gone according to plan by any stretch of the imagination.

But it's all over now. I'm in Methodist Hospital in Omaha. I crashed while working on cornering this morning (Thursday). I broke my L2 vertebra into many pieces, but there's no spinal cord injury.

I'm lucky. Very lucky.

It went like this: I chose the wrong line (really wrong) on a high-speed corner and aimed for the grass to ditch it. And that worked, at first. But there was a fairly large gash in the terrain, like from a tractor. It swallowed my front wheel and sent me straight over the bars. I landed on my butt, basically, and the impact shattered that vertebra.

I got home with the assistance of an Omaha parks and grounds guy named Bill, who gave me a ride in his truck. I managed to get out of the kit and get some ice on my back, but I definitely needed to go to the hospital. Chris took me around lunchtime, and I've been here since.

And I'm going to be here for a few days (room 534 if you feel like stopping in with a new spine, by the way). I'm going to end up with an upper-body brace, which will immobilize the spine. Should something change, surgery would be in order.

Very clearly, bike racing takes a backseat right now. Not that I could do anything anyway ... .

So after I get well, and after I'm allowed to get on the bike, I'm pretty much done with crits. It's just not worth it anymore.

Friday morning update: I slept only OK last night, which is pretty understandable. The pain is localized right on that vertebra, which is good. I get a body brace today that will let me stand up and walk around. Should all go well with that, no surgery will be needed, which is really, really good. Back surgery isn't really an avenue I want to go down.