find_bruce wrote:Yes you are right Alex, I had tried to use a shorthand description & in doing so, got it wrong. Thank you for gently correcting me. I look forward to reading what you have to say, if you feel like writing it.
I have done so over the years via my blog, although not everything I share publicly. I tend to write about the positive stuff.
As an example, this year has been a write-off bike wise because of problems with prosthetic fit causing injury.
In the two years leading up to the UCI World Cup last season, I put up with a gaping hole in the side of my leg caused by the interaction of the various components involved. Not nice being able to look at your tendon. Things just don't heal very well down there inside that no air, moist, warm, salty environment known as the prosthetic liner, and the risk of infection is high.
After that I got a new leg that helped fix the problem (but doing so earlier would have jeopardised my ability to ride at all as in my experience transitioning to new legs is a very dicey period), and meant I probably would not have been able to compete.
Sometimes I would experience pain when riding for no apparent reason (that's bad enough and you can ride through that), but sometimes I don't know the damage I'm doing as I have no nerves in part of my stump. It's only after you stop, take it off and pour the blood out of the leg liner, or spot the deep purple mess of flesh that you realise things aren't all hunky dorey. Then you deal with the frustration of knowing it might be weeks of not using the leg at all to help heal. No walking, no standing, no riding. Crutches again.
Minor changes in weight or body fluids cause large problems with fit when putting your leg into a hard carbon shell and then putting it under a fair workload x 250-300,000 revolutions per month. Lose/gain a few kg and your leg is not so good any more for competition. But at many thousands of dollars a pop, you don't change them like socks. You risk the injury that goes with a just adequately fitting leg. Cundy's leg costs ~ $25k.
But really, they are just (some of) the physical issues. The metal ones are far deeper and more complex.
It's just reality you deal with like any athlete, and I so admire when these guys can actually make to the race, in great nick, on the day, because that doesn't always happen for an amputee (no matter how well you plan), and when that chance slips through your fingers, at the most important event of your sporting life, well I do feel for them. I learned that I needed to make the most of the good periods of form, as the desired peak periods may not even happen due to some random leg problem.
But still, crummy behaviour isn't to be condoned.