 Tony Dodds(Photo: Triathlon NZ; click to enlarge) |
New Zealand elite triathlete Tony Dodds is back on the saddle one week after a serious accident while training in Germany.
Dodds, 24, was launched through the rear windscreen of a car while out training on his bike last week when the vehicle in front of him slammed its brakes on.
He escaped with a badly bruised hip and shoulder but lost a lot of blood from deep cuts to his right arm which narrowly missed severing an artery.
Dodds is recovering in Darmstadt and has made solid improvements over the past week with London's first Olympic selection race now just two weeks away.
"It's coming right, just taking some time. The German stitches aren't that great and my elbow is still a bit pussy and puffy but life goes on. It's a bit of a bummer but it happens," Dodds said.
"A lot of people have said 'you're so lucky you didn't hurt anything else' but to be honest I haven't really thought about it that much yet. I'm lucky to come out with just a sore arm since my whole body went through the windscreen.
"There was nothing wrong with my bike, nothing wrong with my helmet, my whole body was sweet. It was just an instinct that I put my arm first and it just took the whole crash really."
With 12 stitches limiting movement in his arm and elbow, Dodds was a late withdrawal for last weekend's ITU World Championship Series race in Hamburg.
While the risk of infection is still too high to think about swimming, he has been able to continue run training and is now back on the road with his bike after a week on the wind trainer.
Dodds admits his mental space wasn't great in the days following the accident, and he even thought about returning home to Wanaka.
But support from fellow athletes and his coach Tim Brazier pulled him through and he's now more determined than ever to get his season back on track.
"The first thing I wanted to do was go home. I was just in one of those moods, my arm was so sore and I was pretty fed up.
"There's still a lot of puffiness and I can't bend it that far. All I'm doing is running and biking at the moment but in each training session I'm doing the little things I can to improve and not think about it too much.
"Looking at London right now the water's pretty dirty so I'll have to be careful and make sure I put something over it and hope like hell I can manage for 1500m – it shouldn't be a problem.
"One thing I've got to do is not let it worry me too much, I'm just taking it a day at a time at the moment."
The London leg of the ITU World Championship Series is split over two days on August 6th/7th.
For more information on the London race go to www.triathlon.org.
