Tour Of Britain 14.09.09

My ankle has been healing steadily and with great physio support from FASIC, I have been out on the bicycle a fair bit. Yesterday Pete and I cycled the Tour of Britain Stage 3 route from Peebles to Gretna Green, unfortunately my rear mech cable snapped and so I was stuck with only 3 gears and was unable to finish. We were about 20km from the finish by the time we called it a day; the weather was amazing and the route was great, the descent off the second Category 2 climb was one of the best I have done!

Today I again headed down to Peebles to see the Tour entourage and must have spent at least an hour drooling over the multitude of beautiful shiny bikes everywhere you looked! Oh how nice it would be to have your mech cable snap and just have a following mechanic throw you a whole new untouched steed! I managed to get snaps with Olympic Gold Medalist Geraint Thomas of Barloworld (soon to be Sky), British National Road Champion Kristian House of Rapha Condor, Tour of Ireland Winner Russel Downing of Candi TV Marshalls Pasta (also soon to be Sky), and Olympic Gold Medalist Rob Hayles and National XC Champion Ian Wilkinson of Halfords Bike Hut who I actually gave some recce about the route to! I also managed to see Dan Lloyd of Cervelo, Chris Froome of Barloworld, Ben Swift of Katusha (with Vladimir Karpets) and a whole host of others great riders. Bradley Wiggins was hiding in the team bus and only came out just in time to sign on and join the peleton before they set off so I only managed a distant snap. Off to watch the race on ITV4 now, I'll let you know if I spot myself!

Camping in the North West and ankle updates

Having had a week of bad luck; loosing my passport and hence having to cancel a holiday to Portugal, deciding to go camping in the North West and having the car bonnet open unexpextedly on the bypass smashing the windscreen, and then the car breaking down North of Ullapool, I was somewhat relieved to have the fracture clinic conclude that the bone has healed and has not displaced. There is however still a lot of weakness in the ankle and they may have to operate depending on the success of physio, fingers crossed that the physio will be able to repair enough of the damage.

Last week I went up to Clachtoll campsite just south of Stoer and spent the week relaxing on the beaches and driving around the beautiful North West Highlands. The weather was changeable but relatively nice and we spent an enjoyable week touring around positively Caribbean-esque white sandy beaches through Ullapool, Lochinver, Stoer, Drumbeg, Loch Assynt and surrounding areas.

X-ray's and diagnosis

After a check up at the fracture clinic and another x-ray I finally have a conclusive diagnosis; the talus bone is fractured and I have torn two ligaments. As the fractured bone carries blood to the rest of the foot they don't want the bone to displace as this would cut off the blood supply, so it has to be immobilised for another six weeks. After this my leg will probably resemble a soggy chip as well as needing work to stretch the ligaments back into place. It's not all bad news as I might have secured a job so will at least be able to save up some pennies during recovery!

Ankle update 07.06.09

At least the weather has been nice whilst I have been indulging in rest and recovery interspersed with some bouts of hobbling! Further probing at the Fracture Clinic concluded that the ankle is not broken, although it possibly has a hairline fracture. Good news I thought but with continuing discomfort and this Simpsons-esque colour there might be some damage to the tendons/ligaments. The dark bruising up my calf is the worry; as there was no impact to this area the bruising must be from internal damage. With a check up on Friday and physio appointment I will keep you posted.

Craig a Barns 23.05.09

Today I headed up to Dunkeld with Damien to do some tradding. However the weather had other ideas and so after a short while sitting in the rain at Upper Cave we decided to head over to Myopic's. We were not alone in our thoughts and met Boo, Mike and Ali hiding from the downpour. I went to put up the clips in Chopping Block and was warming up nicely having pulled through the roof and rested at the next clip. I started off again heading for the top and then as I was clipping the second to last bolt I suddenly found myself travelling rather swiftly towards the ground. All was well until the rope came tight and pulled me back into the rock, as it was this happened rather aggressively and as I put my feet out to safegaurd more important bodily parts there was a rather loud smack. This turned out to be my right ankle and it was with much dissapointment that I spent the rest of the day lying on a bouldering mat pointing my foot upwards. Later I went to A&E in Edinburgh as my ankle swelled up to a good apple size and much inconclusive poking and two x-rays led to a conclusion of sheared bone on the left side and a possible fracture on the right (back next week for more poking so watch this space!) Overcoming the shmega-fest associated with damp forest and polished shist Damo and Ali had a good day getting the red-point on Chopping Block and working the moves on Granola Head whilst Mike red-pointed Granola Head and The Vibes. A good day for those uninjured.

North Berwick Law 11.05.09

I've been busy revising for exams recently and so haven't been able to get out much unfortunately. However after next week I am off until October so I can't really complain!

Today I made the most of the beatiful weather in Edinburgh and headed for an evening of sport at North Berwick with Andy. The climbing was quite crimpy but on excellent rock with plentiful bolts. We did Wild Iris, Necktie and Law & Disorder as well as playing on Fogtown.

Sinners Wall 20.04.09

Back out in the glorious sunshine today with Greg at Dunkeld. I managed to get the redpoint of Father Figure after putting in the clips and warming up, it is a nice route but very bouldery. We also did Death's Head which gave good sustained climbing. Psyched to get another project on the go and keep enjoying the weather!