Back in the Saddle: Injury, Cancer, and a 30-Mile Comeback Ride
From San Diego Dreams to a Lubbock Reset I trained for nearly a year — over 6,000 miles in the saddle — with one big goal: to ride from San Diego to Las Cruces But sometimes life throws a wrench into your derailleur. On that long tour, I had a freak accident that broke my bicycle and forced me to cut the ride short and head home. It wasn’t the ending I trained for, but I wasn’t about to stop pedaling. While my bike was in the shop (for what would turn out to be two weeks), I didn’t miss a beat. I swapped the open road for my indoor trainer and just kept riding. Not glamorous — but it kept my legs moving and my spirit grounded. Biopsy, Broken Crank, and Broken Momentum The day I got my bike back, I had a six-month checkup — and the doctor did a biopsy on a suspicious spot on my lower leg. That same afternoon, I tried riding outside again, but my gears were all over the place. Back to the shop I went. The next day they called with more bad news: my crank needed replacing. The part would...
