I underwent surgery on it at the same hospital where I had my fractured scaphoid in my wrist operated upon, and am now recovering on crutches, icing and elevating the knee etc. The Chelsea and Westminster hospital really is an excellent advert for the National Health Service.
The good news is that the section ripped off could have been in a worse place, and that hopefully I can cycle again at some point. The bad news is that if new cartilage grows, it will only be 50% as good as the old section, and the risk of arthritis is much higher. I can't do impact sports from now on either, so no more football or tennis, sadly.
Despite the crutches, I made it up to Dalby for round 2 of the British Mountain Bike race series. The new course, built as part of a bid to host a UCI World Cup race in 2010, was a big change from many NPS courses of the past, and reminded me a lot of Fort William with the mini rock gardens and boardwalk sections. It was a proper technical XC course, and caught a few riders out who had not pre-ridden it!
2009 British Mountain Bike race series round 2 from Eldrik on Vimeo.
As I feared, I won't be able to race Mountain Mayhem, nor probably SITS, but should still be at both races with my team to take photos and video and sample the atmosphere, which is some consolation.
