- You might have seen the recent Andes Pacifico video
and seen me fall off my bike
and get injured.
Ended up in hospital for second time in as many years.
I thought this video
I'll talk you through the crash a bit more,
the injuries I got,
and how I've rehabbed
for the second time in two years.
And basically, my tips for getting back on the bike
after a big injury.
Like any big crash I've ever had,
I always try think about how it happened,
why I fell off.
So that was actually day three of the Andes Pacifico.
We'd had a really big hike in the morning,
sort of three hours.
And it was getting late in the day
when I fell off my bike.
I think I had a bit of heatstroke,
it was super hot.
I'd probably drunk about two liters of water,
and basically, I told myself to chill out,
but I didn't do it enough.
I had a pretty big crash,
I know the video doesn't really quite do it justice,
but I landed on my leg hard on the rocks.
And I knew my race was probably done.
My stem was all twisted,
I was feeling pretty battered,
I lost loads of time.
But at that moment in time,
it didn't really feel like I was injured.
So I rolled down to the finish line of that stage
and I knew my race was done by then.
My elbow was pretty shredded,
so I got some medical attention for that
and got that scrubbed out
which was fun, as you'd expect.
But my thigh was really starting to balloon really big.
Had a little puncture wound in there,
but it really wasn't bleeding very much.
So they strapped it up,
well, cleaned it up and strapped it,
and it was only about two hours later,
when we got back to camp
I took that puncture wound dressing off
and it started really bleeding, really badly.
So, luckily I got a bit of help from Loose Dog in his tent.
He run over, helped me out.
And I just put a sock against that
to stop it from really bleeding out of my leg
and just tied a GMBN jersey around it
and hobbled over to see the first aid.
It looked to me just like a really big hematoma.
So a big bruise that just
really balloons up.
So at the first aid tent
what they did was try to massage
some of the blood out of that puncture wound
just so it didn't bleed inside
and get, you know, a massive hematoma.
So they were really sort of massaging that out.
They strapped me up,
gave me a bit of pain medication,
off I went for some dinner.
After dinner had a couple of glasses of wine,
I tried to walk back to my tent
to get a bit of sleep.
I got half way there,
I realize I was in a bit of trouble.
Actually phoned Blake up,
so I could stick my arm around his shoulder.
In the end, Blake actually picked me up,
took me back to the tent like a baby,
put me in the bed
and I thought I'd try and sleep this one off.
About an hour later I was in so much pain
I had to go back to the medical tent,
so I hobbled my way back over there.
This is when things became a bit more serious.
Luckily, at the Andes Pacifico,
they've got lots of great medical help,
so Nico Thumm, the doctor there,
who was a bike rider and a doctor,
took a look at it.
And I was in some pretty serious pain by then
and he knew straight away
that it was compartment syndrome.
And when he said that,
I knew what it was as well.
I've got a friend who almost lost his leg to it.
Basically, it's sort of internal bleeding
and it was inside the muscle.
And, because muscles can't expand,
it can lead to real problems.
It's more complicated if you have it in your lower leg,
my one was up in my thigh.
Basically it means, they've got to,
you know, you've got to get surgery on it
to cut it open,
because that blood isn't gonna go anywhere
and it can cause some real problems with your leg.
So, got in the back of an ambulance,
and I was taken, as fast as possible,
down to Santiago,
which took about an hour and a half.
The ambulance driver was completely bombing.
He actually hit a speed bump
as we got to the hospital,
did a massive jump with five of us in his ambulance,
stuff went everywhere,
my drip landed on the floor.
It was carnage.
I ended up getting emergency surgery
at 5:00 A.M. that morning
from a really good surgeon, Joaquim.
He's actually a bit GCN fan.
So I had lots of help at
the Clinica Universidad de los Andes.
So really stoked on their help.
Basically they cut me open
from almost knee to my hip,
just so they could drain that blood.
And then for the next three days
I had almost like cling film wrap around my leg
with a vacuum on it to keep draining the blood.
They got almost a liter of fluid out of that leg
over those three days.
Then it was a case of trying to sew it back up.
So I was sat in bed for seven days now,
without getting out at all.
The second surgery,
basically just sewed it up a little bit.
And then after five days
I got everything sewn back up
and I had 54 staples in my leg.
So I've got a pretty good scar from that,
but that's the worst of it over.
Really, as soon as they cut the muscle open,
that's pretty much the problem dealt with.
They can get rid of that pressure
and then it's all about recovering.
So now back in this sunny UK.
Sort of seven weeks I think now since the accident.
The Chile trip was amazing still.
It was a two and a half week trip
that turned into almost a month
with that time in hospital.
And the advice I had from Joaquim, the surgeon,
was basically take it super easy for three weeks,
'cause that muscles been really torn,
sewn back together.
If you push it too soon,
you can actually get a hernia on that muscle.
So this is definitely one of those times,
listen to the experts
and I've taken it super easy
for actually a month.
First thing I did was get back on my ebike actually
with my son on the front.
Super leisurely ride
and it was great to have that extra boost of the ebike,
so it didn't stress that muscle too much.
But now, it's time to get back on a cross-country bike,
build some of that fitness again.
(upbeat music)
When it comes to rehabbing,
getting back on a bike,
of course I always say
follow the advice of the medical experts.
In the past, when I was a pro,
I did go and use some specialist sports physios actually,
and people that help a lot of the pro downhillers
and Rebel Athletes in the UK.
Things like shoulder injuries in the past,
I've dislocated my AC joint.
And the great thing about going to see those specialists
is they can tell you what you can and can't do.
So there definitely are some exercises you can't do
with shoulder injuries.
But they can get you moving on things you can do
and that can make a big difference.
In this case I've just used the National Health Service
in the UK.
It's pretty good.
I knew what the injury was.
It was just a case of rehabbing that muscle
and taking my time.
So definitely try and get advice from the right people
with different injuries
and see how fast you can get moving.
(upbeat music)
That's the slippiest thing I've ever tried to ride across.
(laughing)
Oh for sake.
Yeah, that was the inside line.
Now we're standing on the piss.
The worst part about injuries
is just all that time off the bike.
It feels like I lose my fitness really quick as well.
I've also got a torn ACL on that side,
so a torn ligament in that knee
from racing downhill 15 years ago.
I found in that crash
that swelled up pretty bad as well.
So now I'm back on the bike,
just gently spinning.
I find that actually really helps.
It sort of gets the blood flowing to there.
And my knee's gone down loads.
So still gotta take it super gentle.
I feel like this muscle aches pretty bad.
You know, achy legs the morning after a big ride.
It feels like that every day anyway.
So I've gotta go pretty gentle on that muscle,
but it's nice to be back on the bike.
Back in the wet woods in the UK,
but it's super fun to be back on a bike and riding again.
I've definitely had a lot of injuries in the 20 years
of racing downhill, riding enduro,
just riding mountain bikes.
And more than my fair share in the last couple of years.
If you're a follower of GMBN you probably saw,
it was almost two years ago now,
I had a big crash
and broke my ankle, head injury, all sorts of things.
So yeah, bit of experience
coming back from those injuries recently.
One thing not to forget is that
when you do get back on the bike,
you're gonna be a bit rusty,
so take your time,
try not to lose your confidence.
So, you know, a big thing for me now
is I don't wanna fall off on that leg.
Still pretty tender,
even though its getting fixed.
I really wouldn't wanna fall off on that leg.
So I'm just gonna take my time,
realize I've not ridden a bike really in a month,
so it's time to go super steady.
And it'll come back.
The big thing is, to begin with,
you get on the bike
and it feels like,
"Oh, if I case that jump on, that's gonna hurt."
Or whatever.
So take it gentle
and hopefully you'll build your way back into it
and you'll case a jump
and realize that actually it probably isn't gonna hurt it.
So take your time,
get back onto the bike,
gentle as you can,
and build up your confidence again.
I've gotta say a big thanks
to everyone that helped me in Chile.
Blake, of course, for being a good mate
and carrying me to bed.
The boys at GMBN behind-the-scenes as well.
Nico, all the doctors at Andes Pacifico,
Eduardo, Andes Pacifico, a massive help,
so cheers to those guys.
And it's great to be back on a bike,
even though it is raining,
we'll do some miles.
If you wanna see that original video,
from the Andes Pacifico,
click down there for that one
and explain what happened,
if you've not seen that already.
And if you wanna see how to ride long miles,
like I'm gonna do now,
up there for some tips on that one.
Thumbs up if you like recovering from injuries.
See you later.