Feb 11th, 10. Two weeks on from being knocked off his bike, Hayden Godfrey is in good spirits and thanks to some good luck and good rehab, he considers himself back on track to meet his goals.

Godfrey showing his Silver medal from the scratch race won in the Beijing World Cup round just days before his crash ©Champion System

Two weeks ago today Godfrey was out on a training ride when a car cut in front of him.  In the resulting crash the aero bar extensions on his bike poked a hole through the window of the car and his arm followed through with drastic consequences.

"My arm got caught on the glass and it peeled it open an inch and half wide and two inches long," Godfrey explained to RoadCycling.co.nz yesterday afternoon.

The subsequent gash out of his forearm required surgery under general anaesthetic as x-rays showed a significant amount of glass in the wound.

With such a deep gash, Godfrey was lucky not to have any nerve or ligament damage which is what has allowed him to get back out on the road. If Godfrey had had that type of damage he would have been out for months, but instead he had his first ride this Tuesday.  

Although he said there was no way he could race the nationals after a week off the bike and with some strength loss in his arm, he has a positive outlook on his recovery.

"Everything is going pretty good now, I'm steadily building and the muscle has repaired itself quite nicely.  I've been doing everything under the sun to help it along," he said.

"Considering it was quite a bad crash, I've come off pretty lucky.  If I didn't have this gash on the arm I wouldn't have had any issues at all, I was like a stunt man."

Godfrey's bike didn't get off so lightly, it was broken in five places.

"Five marked places where it was sheared through, it destroyed the whole wheel and my wireless SRM got busted.  Luckily the bike took the brunt of it rather than myself," said Godfrey.

Godfrey will be back on the track in winning form again soon ©Champion System

In the meantime his main difficulty is the power needed for standing starts and the fact the cut itself is right where he rests his arms on the aerobars during pursuiting events.

In three weeks Godfrey is heading over to race in Australia, with other riders from the BikeNZ endurance track team, which will be his chance for selection for the UCI World Championships in March.  

"If I take care of everything, do everything right for rehabilitation, I'll come along pretty quickly. As long as I don't injure the muscle again I don't think it will affect me at all for any other races," he said.

"It's all kind of positive at the moment."

Godfrey has a great team helping his rehabilitation, he's working with Anthony Chapman and Mark Hollands from Active Health in his hometown, Christchurch. Hollands is also the head medical specialist for BikeNZ who, as Godfrey said, have an interest in helping him heal as quickly as possible.

Understandably, Godfrey is disappointed not to be at the National Championships where he expects there will be plenty of great racing.

He was really looking forward to the new Omnium format where the Omnium is raced as part of the individual events rather than as a separate event.  

"It will be great to see how everyone goes.  I think all the racing is going to be hotly contested. There are plenty of young guys coming through to push the older guys.  With the amount of talented young guys coming through it's really awesome, it will be awesome racing," he said. 

Please support those who support us ...