That’s exactly what I thought when I picked myself off the ground after a snafu with another rider and his feedbag on stage 1, fracturing my tailbone. After a new rear wheel and a chase back to the racing peloton, I realized something was not right. The race was full on at that point so there was no time to reflect on my wounds. I got right back to the peloton and began chasing full gas as a break was away and no Slipstream was there. I chased with everything I had trying to ignore the knife-like pain coming from my rear.

As I sit here and write this I am dealing with frustration and pain. The worst part is the intense aching of my tailbone is prohibiting me from releasing my frustrations on the bike. I want so badly to fly freely up and climb and leave everything I have on the pavement in a time-trial right now. While this is not possible, I am going to grit my teeth and fight through this. I am going to finish this race no matter what, and I am going to make myself a stronger person from it. I also realize I’m lucky to still be pedaling after seeing a racer from Team Type 1, Ben Brooks airlifted away.

One thing that I admired most about Lance as a person was his ability to take any circumstance around him and use it to make him a better person. He never tripped over all the trash that was constantly being thrown at him. He would look at it and decide if he should keep it and transform it into something that would benefit him, or kick it out of his way if it had no use to him. Well, I see this as a perfect opportunity to get stronger and I am going to do just that by finishing Cascade Classic with a broken tailbone.

Thank you for all of your incredible support and I ask that you keep it coming. Every comment I read or guestbook entry I see gives me just that little bit more motivation. So keep it coming and I’ll keep working on getting myself ready to fly up some hills!

TD