When it rains...

...it rains. Literally. Especially in California. But not in New Hampshire where I am now. Here it snows and rains and I see a half dozen cars off the road in the snowbank in the 20 mile stretch between airport and home at 2am. So from the standpoint that I'm not sitting in the ditch on the side of the road, I'm grateful. I'm also grateful that I didn't do worse damage to my body. My friend and former teammate was sitting next to me in the hospital with a broken femur. THAT is a wicked pissah.So, yes, I'm happy I didn't hurt myself worse. I'm unhappy, though, that I'm not racing my bike. Bringing everyone up to speed, an unnamed Italian rider directly in front of me decided to plant his left foot on the ground and veer left at about 10mph during the friggin' neutral section of ToCA's stage 3, causing me to run into him and hit the deck. It wasn't terribly hard, but hard enough for me to jack my arm at an awkward angle thereby fracturing the greater tuberosity in my left humerus - upper arm to the layperson. I've received one diagnosis/prognosis that I'm not too disappointed with, but I'll be getting another one tomorrow just to be sure.I remounted my bike, started the race, was actually passing riders while ascending the brutally steep Sierra Mountain using one arm for the first mile, but then the pain was overwhelming and I had to pull the plug. Emotions were in rollercoaster-mode right then. I'm usually a happy go lucky guy so I did all that I could to keep the tears in as I stepped into the team car. Basically it just plain sucks. I'm the only American on the team, so I was hoping for a really good showing out of myself on my home turf in my first race with the team. Not to be this time around.That being said, this isn't a sob story or pity party. Roommate and cool dude extraordinare Thor took the stage after the team rode awesomely delivering him to the line perfectly, so that lifted the spirits enormously. The pain in my shoulder is minimal which is great, despite the doctors saying that I shouldn't be lifting anything heavier than a coffee cup (which I'm good at), and CANNOT risk smacking it again for a few weeks with the  ramifications of serious surgical complications were that to happen. It's good to be with the fam healing up in New Hampshire before I head back overseas very shortly.Thanks very much for everyone's support. Professional cycling itself is a mental and emotional rollercoaster ride, so the well wishes really mean more than you could imagine.