Downgraded: Cheerleader Status at Maribor WC :(

:( Fractured Sacrum

Gotta love Dr.'s reports...especially in Slovenian! :(

Well, we made it safe and sound to Maribor just in time for a massive hail and rain storm! Unfortunately I've lost a bunch of pictures that I took whilst in Maribor, so no hail storm or race pictures. :(

Anyway, we walked the track on Wednesday and it looked like it was going to be so much fun to race. There were a few more roots than I love, but I was prepared to deal with them for the fun that all of the turns, berms, and jumps had to offer! :)

Thursday, we all head up for 4x practice in the afternoon, and I was having a great time. The course was FAST, flowing in some parts, awkward in others, big jumps, and definitely challenging. I was following Jo Jo getting sorted on the course when things went suddenly wrong! The first straight was a bit awkward and super fast! I've really been working hard to use my brakes less, and to my credit, I didn't use them at all...ummm, ooops. Well, in the end, I ended up going way past where I had planned on landing and not far enough to clear the last log feature, so down I went!! HARD!!! A couple of people that I know saw the crash and said it was a good one! I crawled (couldn't walk!) off of the course and sat on the sidelines for about 15 minutes. I knew something was pretty wrong in my low back, pelvis region, but I didn't want people to fuss about over me, and just sitting there watching practice meant that I could prolong the reality of being injured...again!

Off to the hospital I went. I got some x-rays and a CT scan with the final verdict being a fractured sacrum (part of the pelvis). After a bout of fainting and some puking, we decided it'd be best if I stayed the night in the luxurious Maribor hospital. Yea!!! :( They were pretty full of for the night, so they chucked the bed that I was on into the middle of a room with four really OLD ladies in it. Needless to say, I didn't get the best sleep of my life that night! Fee and Jo Jo came around to retrieve me the next day in between DH and 4x practice. Boy was I glad to see them. They sent me off with crutches and a perscription to get a bunch of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) injections at the pharmacy. I hate needles, and the thought of having to give myself an injection every day was horrible!

Anyway, back to the race that had barely even begun!

4x qualies were on Friday night in the dry dust! Saturday night the heavans opened up and it started pissing down the rain! DH practice on Saturday was epic (or so I was told), and then they ended up postponing qualies till the next day b/c thunder and lightening kept closing the lift down. The rain stopped and muddy, muddy 4x finals ensued! It was fun to watch the racing with some pretty good passing taking place during the heats! Melissa ended up in 2nd on the night which was awesome!!!

Sunday morning everyone got up bright and early for 7:00 am DH practice and 9:30 qualies. That morning's qualies were the most exciting I've ever watched! My friend Bernard Kerr had an amazing run and qualified 11th!! The boy has been riding out of his mind the last couple of weeks! Racing was slated for later that afternoon, and it was so warm and dry that most people traded in their mud spikes for regular tires in the end. Sabrina held on for her 4th win in a row, which was awesome!! Unfortunatley Bernie had a crash in his finals, as he was on pace to put in a really good run. He still ended up 44th with his best DH finish yet!

Hanging out with Sabrina was the best part of the evening.
Tiny bars full of loads of drunk people aren't the best place to
have any sort of conversation! :( Ah well!

The afterparty in Maribor always sucks, and I was certianly not looking forward to it this year being on crutches. It's always down in the town, which is a fair distance from the race venue (and where everyone is staying). We hopped on a bus to head downtown and about 5 minutes into the ride, a baseball sized rock (from who knows where) came sailing through the window, throwing glass all over the place, including into Jo's arm, making it bleed! We all say, a bit in disbelief that that had really just taken place. We sat around for about 20 minutes before the police and another bus showed up to take us on our merry way. This trip has held a lot of "firsts" for me, and that was definitely one of them. Hopefully it's also a last, as that was really scary, and if the rock had hit anyone, it definitely would have taken them out!

Our bus window post "stoning"

Anneke getting a little extra training in and biding
the time until the replacement bus showed up

Oh, and as predicted, the party sucked, especially since I was just sat around trying not to get pushed over by all of the rowdy drunk DHers crammed into way too small of a place for everyone!