Freeway Bike Hike 2006

FBH 2006 was completed last weekend with over 6,500 competitors riding on the Northern Suburbs Freeway which is closed to traffic for the morning.
www.freewaybikehike.com.au

We competed in B Grade with young Maddie in tow. 30km up the closed Freeway then back to the car , 70km in total as the supplied bike trains had a bit of a queue!!


& for all those who rode past the ambulance & rider & wondered the outcome, Lord Byron on aus.bicycle found out:


Thank you all for your kind enquiries and, in some cases, visits to
me in the hospital. Injuries as reported: three broken ribs on the
right side at the back, contusions to lung where it had been
thrashed a bit by the ribs, and the usual cyclist's-fall bark off
the right leg and arm. I was kept in mostly to see that the lungs
didn't get worse but allowed to go yesterday evening after my third
session on the exercise bike. True! The physio had me on a very
bunky exercise bike in the corridor to see how my oxygen saturation
held up under very modest exercise. I'm used to riding to a heart
rate, but this was a case of keeping the sats above 90% at a heart
rate of around 75 bpm. There are certain restrictions on deep
breathing for the moment, but the cure is to get nice
freshly-oxygenated blood to the injured bits as much as possible. I
must say the care in that cardio-thoracic ward was absolutely
wonderful.

As to what happened, reports confirm my recollection that I was
spat sideways big time. It happened near Lake Monger, I suppose. I
got the wrong side of some slow traffic from the start, and by the
time the bunch came out of the tunnel it was spread out and there
were gaps. I was just working my way to the front bunch. I had
started to bridge to the front group by myself when I thought it
might be more sensible to wait for some help. I was actually
feeling really good, and I was thinking that I felt much better
than I had last year at the same point when someone started rubbing
elbows from my right, with no warning and no traffic reason as far
as I could see. I remember the bike being terminally sideways and
thinking I was going down, but not the impact.

I have a vague recollection of screaming to be left on my back:
probably because somebody was trying to do the right thing and put
the unconscious patient in the coma position. After that, by the
time I regained real consciousness the ambos had me on a frame and
a in neck brace.

I've now got a few days of gentle mobilisation and a lot of rest.
I'll see how I am about returning to work next week, although the
physio doesn't want me driving for some time: poorly-oxygenated
blood doesn't help the concentration.

See you all as soon as I can and, once again, thanks.