This past weekend was a bitter sweet experience at the SA XCO Cup race at Wolwespruit MTB & Trail Park in Pretoria. I was excited to race in my home province and the course was super nice as it suited my style of riding.
After spending a week with the physio and doctor at the High Performance Center (HPC), including an acupuncture session, I felt my knee was a lot better after the “small” injury I picked up at Cape Epic and I thought I was race ready. Unfortunately, just after getting a puncture on lap 1, when I was powering up to chase back, I felt the pain in my knee come back and again it was a one and a half leg battle to the finish.
Turns out I have edema of the distal tendinous part of the vastus medialis and the medial longitudinal patellar retinaculum. I also have edema of the soft tissue in the medial recess and the patella femoral ligament. Which basically means swelling on the knee and straining of the ligaments.
This is the reason I’m sadly not participating in the UCI MTB African Continental Championships being held in Lesotho tomorrow.
After consulting with a few specialists at the HPC we decided that we have to look at the bigger picture and sacrifice this big competition to fully recover for the rest of the season and be extra smart about my cycling career. There are no quick fixes; to race now will only create more harm in the future.
Someone wise once gave me this quote from Prof. Terblanche - “no one person can train a champion, it takes a team willing to work together”, and I’m surrounded by a great team – including everyone who supports my dream and the team that keeps that dream alive, Kargo Pro Cycling Team. So I’ll be back soon, recovered and ready to race- Skinny Hulk about to turn green!
Note to self: never let a stumble in the road be the end of the journey. As the Terminator says: “I’ll be back…”
After spending a week with the physio and doctor at the High Performance Center (HPC), including an acupuncture session, I felt my knee was a lot better after the “small” injury I picked up at Cape Epic and I thought I was race ready. Unfortunately, just after getting a puncture on lap 1, when I was powering up to chase back, I felt the pain in my knee come back and again it was a one and a half leg battle to the finish.
Turns out I have edema of the distal tendinous part of the vastus medialis and the medial longitudinal patellar retinaculum. I also have edema of the soft tissue in the medial recess and the patella femoral ligament. Which basically means swelling on the knee and straining of the ligaments.
This is the reason I’m sadly not participating in the UCI MTB African Continental Championships being held in Lesotho tomorrow.
After consulting with a few specialists at the HPC we decided that we have to look at the bigger picture and sacrifice this big competition to fully recover for the rest of the season and be extra smart about my cycling career. There are no quick fixes; to race now will only create more harm in the future.
Someone wise once gave me this quote from Prof. Terblanche - “no one person can train a champion, it takes a team willing to work together”, and I’m surrounded by a great team – including everyone who supports my dream and the team that keeps that dream alive, Kargo Pro Cycling Team. So I’ll be back soon, recovered and ready to race- Skinny Hulk about to turn green!
Note to self: never let a stumble in the road be the end of the journey. As the Terminator says: “I’ll be back…”