As the start of the 2011 season came around I wasn't even close to ready.
So the recovery process continued on for another year.
Bissell even gave me medical leave which allowed me to continue paying
for my rehab even though technically I no longer had a contract with them.

Jump forward to the start of the 2012 season and I decided to take my tryout.
I knew I wasn't 100% but it was close enough to where I thought I would be back to my normal self a months into the season so I didn't want to wait around
for 6-9 months for the next season's tryouts to roll around.



But it turns out I was no where near professional cycling shape.
I struggled mightily to keep up with the team,
and I was told I needed 1 more year.

Once again Bissell went over the top to help me by renewing my medical leave,
granting me another tryout for next season and to motivate me
they gave me my talent evaluation from the tryout.



I still had a lot of work left to do going into another year of recovery.

And that has been my story so far. I'm now writing this story as it happens.
Today is March 5, 2012 and since my last episode I have been training almost
every day to regain my cycling shape before getting hit by that car.

And tomorrow marks my first race back since the accident over two years ago.
It's just a small amateur event here in California but I can't wait.
Should be a lot of fun to get back into the peloton and see how I do.

Race report will be up tomorrow as
Kyle will be out on the course taking pictures for me.

My first race back is 115kms totally flat in downtown San Diego.
I'm not expecting much but a positive preformance to build on,
as I'm going to try and enter 1 race per month until my tryout in November.

Here we go, the start of "The Comeback."

--- *** --- *** --- *** ---

It's bright sunny day and I'm diffidently feeling the pre-race nerves.



The flag waves and I'm off! Hopefully none of the rookies recognize me,
and consider me a huge threat up in the breakaway as I'm one of only
a few cyclist to actually be offered a professional contract in this area.



The few that do recognize me actually join me up in the breakaway.
We exchange greetings and have some great conversations as
the four of us quickly pull out a three minute lead over the peloton.
Cool to see some familiar faces I use to race with before my injury.



The only problem is the other 3 riders know how good I was before
the accident and are making me do most of the pace making even
though I keep telling them I'm no where as good as I was back then.
They aren't buying into it though as it has been over two years since then.



We get to 20kms to go with 1'15" lead I'm totally exhausted.
And I tell the guys if they want to win they have to drag me to the finish.



10kms to go and we are still fighting with a 50 second advantage.



Now it's just 5kms to go and we are actually pulling away!



The peloton is still chasing but the gap is back to 1'15".



I don't believe it. We are under the banner, one of us is going to win.



Starting in third I didn't know who to follow in front of me,
and it turned out I followed the wrong guy so I had to quickly
readjust and go after the other guy. But there was only 600 meters left.



There wasn't enough road left as I close down the gap but
couldn't make the pass giving me a 2nd for my first race back.



A great achievement. But I was so close...