The American national road race champion, Timmy
Team Saxo-Tinkoff
You must have been thinking about your crash a lot. What happened exactly?
“We were going at 80 kilometers an hour through a roundabout and I somehow just slipped out on the outside. It happens.”
Did you know immediately that bones were broken after the crash?
“It didn’t take very long to assume I had broken my collarbone but it wasn’t for several more hours that my leg started to swell and hurt and we took X-rays to find out there was a mild fracture to the tibia as well.”
How do you keep the spirit up?
“Although I’d rather be healthy and competing, I at least get to spend some time at home with my wife Loren and my dog Karli. Normally during January through April I only see them for a couple weeks! Obviously most of my time is spent doing my rehab exercises and resting, but I can also take care of items that normally I don’t have the time to do. My taxes, for example. Also, we live in the forest with big windows in our house so my long time on the couch I watched the animals outside. Normally there is a woodpecker that jumps around on the bird feeder all day and also a squirrel. But the squirrel is out of the picture now as he got eaten by some coyotes yesterday!”
How much are you able to train?
“I spend a couple hours a day doing simple rehab exercises with my leg, as well as a lot of core strengthening work. I have been able to ride the bike for around an hour with no resistance but this week I have started riding harder and putting some more weight onto my leg. It has been rapidly improving since the very first day so I hope to continue that trajectory.”
When do you expect to get back to the road and to racing?
“I lose the crutches in two weeks and hope to be able to train outside at that point. At the end of March I’m planning a trip to Southern California to train in the warm weather as well as look at the stages for the Tour of California, which will likely be my first race back. It may be possible to return a little bit sooner, perhaps at the Tour de Romandie or Tour of Turkey at the end of April, but California will be my likely comeback. We will see how things go and continue to improve,” concludes the American national champion.