Well, I’m sitting here in the plush villa that Stefan Wyman arranged for us in De Panne. We’ve got a good group of us here relaxing the night before the World Cup. But the thing is – I won’t be racing tomorrow. Or for a while for that matter…

I crashed during training today and fractured a vertebrae in my spine.

Now I’m going to be okay. I can walk and move around. I’m just in a lot of pain – my back is in spasm, my right thigh is completely numb, and my back plain old hurts. And I’ve got a nasty scrape on my face – first black eye I’ve had in a long time! But my body will heal. The orthopaedic surgeon said it will be about six weeks until I’ve recovered.

So another cyclocross season is over. I think I’m in shock right now.

As for what I do next – I really don’t know. For now I’ll just relax and maybe just maybe I’ll hit up the bakery across the street for a sweet rice tart!

Feeling better today. Think I’ve been battling the flu all week. The headaches and unhappy stomach would indicate this. Well, it is a double race weekend so the flu has no choice but to be gone! So I’ve determined that it is gone (or at least hoping)!

We’re off to Koksijde in a few hours. I’ll get in a couple laps of the sandy course and then it is off to our rented house in De Panne for the evening. Racing on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 Belgian time. After this race it is a quick clean-up and then a 4.5 hour drive to Gieten, Holland for number two on the race schedule on Sunday.

I’ll post tonight about the race course and my thoughts on it. At this point I’m thinking it will be very similar to last year’s course. Sand, sand, more sand and some crazy descents. Anything less and it just wouldn’t be Koksijde!

Keep sending those healing vibes.

(On another note – I had the battery replaced in my Timex Ironman digital watch and now it won’t make any beeps or alarms. Any ideas?)