On the night of Monday the 25th of March I found out I was to be racing with the US Espoir National Team. The race is going to be the GP de Warregem and is the second leg of the Espoir World Cup Series. To say the least I wasn't to thrilled to find out about the race with such a short notice, but I was actually a good thing since it didn't give me any time to worry about the race and waste energy.

    So Wednesday came and we arrived at the National Teams house at 8am and prepared for the race. The national team has a very good setup and make racing very easy on the team. We are treated just like the professionals with our bottles and food ready, bikes lubed and prepped.

    The race started off fast with a couple of crashes as we went through some of the small towns on our way towards the rolling country. I was feeling very good, which is a first for any race that I have done here, and even saw my heart rate hit the 130's at one point. I made it over the hardest part of the race, a set of three cobbled climbs, but then I blew. I just couldn't keep the pace going. I slowly moved my way backwards through the field and eventually went off the back.

    I decided at the beginning of the race not to give up and the only way I was going to stop chasing was when I keeled over from a heart attack. So I sat onto a couple of struggling riders and began to recover, my heart rate moved from the 180's to about 175 and I began to move my way through the caravan from car to car. I had made it from about the 10th team car to about the 6-8th car and the field was within striking distance.

    This is when the race was to come to an abrupt end, at about 90k into the race a car in front of me hit the brakes and slowed up way faster than I could, to say the least I locked up my brakes and just tucked and rolled. Next think I know I am on the ground and I'm alert.

    "Time to get up and chase" I think to myself, but as soon as I get up I start to black out and almost fall over again. So I just sat down, raised my hand and waited for the ambulances which follow the race to get to me. While waiting I notice my left arm has limited movement. I know what this means, a broken collarbone.

    The ambulance arrives and takes me off to the hospital for treatment. On the way I tell the ambulance paramedic that my collarbone is broken. He replies, "Oh I see, don't worry, we will fix everything". I see, now this isn't a normal thing for someone to say, so I look to my left and sure enough I can see a small end of my collarbone sticking out of my left shoulder. It isn't anything like what you would see in the movies, it wasn't even bleeding, it was just very noticeable.

    The hospital was great at care. With every race you enter here in Belgium you get medical insurance to cover a crash, so everything was taken care of. They x-rayed anything that was remotely bruised or scared. Within 3 hours of being admitted to the hospital I found myself in the in the operating room having my collarbone being put back together. I would have been in there even sooner, but they were using it.

    The only bad thing about the hospital was the fact that I wasn't able to eat for almost 24 hours. I crashed about 2pm on Wednesday, and I didn't have anything to eat till 8am the next mourning, which was just 2 pieces of bread, some cheese, and a cup of coffee. I finally had lunch at about noon and I was relaxed at 5pm the next day.

    Behind the scenes Noel, the national team coach, Bernard, my director sportif, and Doctor Dag, my teams doctor, were all in contact with each other. The Doctor talked with the surgeon and nurses to see how I was doing, make sure everything went well and made sure I got the best surgeon in the area to do the operation. It was great knowing that I had people who were doing everything they could to get me back to good health.

    The first couple of days back were a hard on me. The pain wasn't to bad, it was just the headaches from the crash and the dull recurring pain in my broken ribs when I sneezed or coughed. I decided to take my mind off of things and go out with two of my team mates to the movies.

    We decided to go see A Beautiful Mind. The movie was in English with French and Flemish subtitles. The coolest thing about the movies here is the fact that you can order an beer at the concession stand. Add one Snickers Bar, one beer, and a pain killer, nice comfy chair, and a good movie and it's almost enough to forget you just broke your collarbone two days before,

    After the movie we go walking around downtown Oostende and look for a place to eat. We finally decide on a Mexican food restaurant. This makes me happy, as I haven't had any Mexican food since I left Texas for South Africa. South Africa has lots of good food, but not one restaurant even trying to serve anything like Mexican food.

    The food is expensive compared to other places, but I say what the hell, I need a bit of mental uplifting. The food ends up being very decent food and the only thing I could complain about was the fact when we ordered water we got bottled water. If I knew we were going to be getting bottled water I would have ordered a beer or a coke, both of which are the same price.

    My road to recovery is going very well. Right now, only 5 days after my crash I am able to ride the trainer with both my hands on the handlebar. No real pain from my ribs, except when my heart rate monitor slips a little to far down and puts direct pressure on my rib.

    I have decided to really focus and may my comeback at the stage race, Fleche de Sud, in 5 weeks. I know I can be able to do the race and finish, it's just going to take some hard work and long trainer rides. I am using this time to readjust my diet, loose some weight, and get my body back on-line.

    Everyone keep well, I will be back, it's all a matter of time (hopefully 4-5 weeks)

    -Gregg Germer-