Well what can I say.
I couldn't be ar$ed writing a long report at the moment, maybe later ...
Got out for untimed practice and was a bit concerned about all the traffic. I finally made my way through and found some clear air and trying to get some decent drive out of clearways I had a bit of a moment.
The back came around because I was clearly being a bit greedy with the throttle. I've had a few of these slides and having talked to the CSS guys about it I've saved them all by checking the throttle and not rolling off. This time it didn't quite work according to plan and I knew it was going to get a bit ugly. I gripped the tank with my knee's as hard as I could and held onto the bars for the expected ejector seat manoeuvre and when it came I actually felt the stomp pads (the grippy pads I have on the tank) roll my leathers around as it shot me out of the seat. I hung onto the bars just hoping that I would come back down but I knew the gig was up when I was effectively doing a handstand on the bars looking down at the tank. I let go and just waited for the inevitable ...
I remember thinking "This is gonna hurt" and sure enough, I hit the ground pretty hard with my left shoulder (the one I had screwed back together last year) and hip. Then my ankles slapped down even harder, they travelled the most distance, and then I slapped my head down as I rolled.
And then I sort of rolled off into the gravel. My apologies to those who were watching me lay there, I was trying to wave but to be honest I was struggling to move and then the marshall was there pretty quickly and he told me not to move. I wanted to wave to let everyone know I was ok. So, off to the med centre and then off to hospital.
Five hours later my ankle was in plaster and I'd broken a bone right in the middle of the ankle. Bugger. And then they gave me these crutches that put a lot of strain on my dodgy shoulder .... great. Not to mention the fact that I was in hospital in my undersuit and nothing else - it's not a great look!
Apparently the bike is in surprisingly good shape, thanks to the bungs I had on it and the fact that it didn't really do much. I'll be getting her patched up and sold I think!
So ... I can thoroughly recommend not highsiding. I had a bit of a morbid curiosity about highsides and wondered what they'd be like - if you're the same just ask me about it and give it a miss
As you'd expect I'm a tad sore today so I'm just going to chill out a bit.
I have a lot of people to thank and I know that I'll miss some of you who helped out while I was in hospital.
Mike and Lizzie, Annette, Rally and Dibble, The Sneig's for the lift home and driving the van (good race results too Richard
) Julie and Sara and ... god knows who else helped! But thank you all.
Thanks also to those who've sent me text messages and msn'd and u2u'd etc ... thanks very much. It would have been such a hassle without the help and support of everyone around and I really appreciate it. Unfortunately I won't make it to Cadwell so that's my season done. I'm really glad to have been in the first Desmo Due series.
Good luck to all the racers and everyone else for Cadwell.
TP