Al's Ride Club

Thanks again for joining me here and on ROUVY. I started cycling as a way of exercise in 2009. I enjoyed racing for a 50+ team ABLOC for a number of years. In 2014, I sustained a back injury which sidelined my riding. After some therapy, I returned to cycling, but not competitively.

In 2023, I sustained an injury to my right knee and left wrist. I wanted to share some of that experience with you in this post. I’m hopeful that if you have a similar injury, you can relate.

I was hit by a car on an afternoon ride October 5,2023. I almost had my leg severed off! My VMO was cut through and I sustained a horrible open knee injury as well as an open injury to my left wrist.

If you want to see the photos, you can uncover them below, but they are not for the faint of heart. I was hit head on by a distracted driver. I went through their front windshield and also injured my left wrist going through the window. There was a lot of glass stuck in my back from the broken window.

I feel lucky that my helmet saved me from a serious head injury. I ended up on the ground next to the SUV and immediately saw that my knee was filet open! I placed my hands over my knee to stop the bleeding and then noticed my open wrist. So I used my right hand to cover the flap of tissue exposing the tendons over my wrist. It was all a bit surreal. I never lost consciousness, but did find myself a little light headed and frankly in shock. A few caring individuals stopped to help and I was transported to the local ER rather quickly after we controlled the bleeding of my knee. I really thought I had broken my knee-cap and my knee. The injury was purely from the force of my knee hitting the hood of the SUV.

I went to the ER and was immediately stabilized in a trauma room. I had a series of xrays over my entire body and then had my knee and wrist washed out by the ER nurses. I had already called my wife who met me at the ER. I also called a close friend who is an orthopedic surgeon and he scheduled to take me to surgery right away since this was an open knee injury. There was a real fear of infection setting in, especially after leaving the knee and wrist open for any length of time.

I had surgery for an open knee injury and wrist injury. Thankfully no broken bones, but ligaments and VMO were cut clean through. I had it repaired and spent a week in the hospital. I was braced in a straight leg splint for almost 8 weeks with some ROM exercises to gain movement back to the knee joint. It took about 3 months for the full range of motion to return. It took a lot of rehabilitation to get my knee back into shape. Im very thankful to be back riding.

I spent the months of October, November and December to increase the range of motion to my knee. It was seriously slow because of the severed VMO and ligaments to the knee. I would say the first month, after getting out of the splint, my knee would only bend about 10-15 degrees. It wanted to stay straight because I hadn’t moved the knee much in the splint. I tried a few times to take myself out of the splint in the first weeks after surgery, but bending the knee was too painful. I also feared tearing the repaired VMO. In November and December, I began therapy to start bending the knee. The progression was slow, but by January, I could bend the knee to almost 90 degrees (more like 85). I read that I needed 110 degrees of flexion in the knee to pedal the bike. I had gone on my trainer a few times in December, but as I pedaled, I couldn’t get my knee over the top of a pedal stroke. It was just too painful and tight.

I continued to work on stretching and by January, I could bend my knee to 110 degrees. I spent a week in Mexico off the bike at the end of January, so I really didn’t start until February 2024 on the bike. Everyday, got better, especially when I started riding. I tried Zwift a few weeks and didn’t really like the group rides and that’s when I switched to Rouvy. ROUVY really saved me and made riding indoors so enjoyable.

As I continued to ride through the year, it took a while for my knee to gain strength back, especially to the VMO, which was atrophied after the repair. I didn’t really feel my strength come back until during the summer 2024. In the Fall and Winter of 2024, my knee felt almost 100% back to normal! I still have some scar tissue that bothers me at times, but overall , it is much better.

Photos of accident injury (not for the faint of heart- VIEW DISCRETION ADVISED)

Injury Photo 1

Injury Photo 2

Injury Photo 3

I had some reservations showing these photos and sharing this unfortunate accident. It’s been over a year now and my ridng is getting better and I’m enjoying the world of ROUVY immensely. I still ride on the road, but I limit it to group rides, maybe once a week on the weekened.

An accident like this makes you think twice about life and goals. I certainly don’t want to put my wife through another one of these accidents. She was so good about feeding me and helping me during that difficult time, but I would never want to put her through that again!

Ride safe everyone and enjoy your time on the bike! If you have a cycling injury, rest assured that you will be back!