On Saturday (13-8-11) I rode my 1983 Tenere in the Theo Nixon 6Hr (the 5th round of the SA Reliability Trial Series), which was run near Mallala on the Adelaide Plains.
The course comprised 9 competitive special / paddock sections of 2 to 10km long spaced out over a lap of 130km. The paddock sections were in great condition due to the rain that had fallen during the week and put just enough moisture into the ground to prevent any dust, without turning it into mud. The paddocks were a mixture of mallee scrub, salt bush flats, red loam sand hills and even a couple of excursions onto some not quite dry salt/clay pans.
Though a "strange" quirk of luck the 8 solo riders from my club (Clare MCC) all drew consecutive numbers in the "random" ballot for starting numbers, so the ride was quite a social occasion, with everyone having a good time as we waited for our "minutes" at the start of the paddock sections.
I was having a great ride and all was going well until I had a bit of an incident in the 9th (last) paddock of the first lap. This paddock section was a 7km run through some medium density mallee scrub. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon and with the sun starting to set, visibility was crap, riding in and out of bright sunlight and heavy shade. About a km or two into the section, I was powering out of a reasonably tight left hand corner in 2nd gear, when there was a god almighty thump to my right foot.
After a lot of swearing, the pain subsided (well my foot when numb) and l rode on slowly to the finish of the paddock, and then back along the final transport section to the main control. After a 15 - 20 minute layover at the main control / fuel dump, I was still able to kickstart the bike, so I headed out and rode the second lap rather carefully. I rode the last paddock a bit slower than the first time, and kept a good lookout to see if I could find what it was that I had hit. It turns out that I had hit a descent sized log / fallen branch about 150 - 250mm in diameter and about 3 to 4 metres in length, that was right on the edge of the track.
So, Foot V's log; guess which won?
You got it, the Log won!
I suppose when the combine weight of a near fully fuelled Tenere and a 125kg rider impacts with an immovable object, something has to give! The RH foot peg bracket is also bent back at about 45 degrees, and it would have taken a fair bit of force to do.
The up side is that through finishing I won my class (Class M) and gained another 25 points towards the State Championship. Oh the stupid thing you do for a plastic trophy.
I went to the doctor's yesterday,
2nd bone of big toe (proximal phalange) broken in two places;
1st bone (distal phalanges) of the 2nd and 3rd toes crushed / shattered;
2nd bone of 2nd and 3rd toes (proximal phalanges) both broken.
2nd bone (proximal phalange) of 4th toe broken.
Net result is that my foot and lower are leg now encased in a fibreglass cast to try and immobilise the foot and toes. I would hate to have seen the damage to my foot if I didn't have descent boots on.
The big down side to the whole thing is that it has pretty well stuffed up the busiest part of the season for me. Apart from having nothing on next weekend, I had a major event on for the following 5 weekends;
Manum 6hr (6th rnd of SARTS)
VMX Nationals
Clare 6hr (6th rnd of SARTS)
SA Moto Trials Champ’s
Aust Moto Trials Champs
Col
