On August 20 I was in a cycling race and hit a dog after about 10 minutes. The streets in Bolivia are full of dogs, and you literally have to watch every step to avoid getting your shoes dirty. The race passed a small village and I came through a corner and then there was a very short downhill before equally short uphill. At the bottom there was a dog on the street. It looked like it was going to cross the street, but I think it got confused right at the last moment and I ran into it. There were racers around me so I would not have had much chance of swerving around the dog. It was quite a hit but luckily my glutes took the worst of it. With worse luck I could have easily fractured my hip. After a couple of minutes I decided to keep riding because my stuff was in a car on the way to the finish area.
I kept riding the trainer the next week and I did two swims that week too (with wounds covered as well as possible), so on Sunday road rash in my hip, elbow and ankle were like fresh. I wanted to race a time trial that Sunday because based on all the road races I had done around here, I thought I could be the best time trialist around La Paz. I ended up winning that race by 0,1 seconds even though muscles felt really heavy from the start.
With the wounds still open, I needed to rest so I took 2 days off, then did a short run on Wednesday and as running was still painful from the crash, I decided to rest 2 more days. At that point I also decided not to go to triathlon national championships that weekend in Santa Cruz. By now I was pretty sure there was a small tear in the affected mucle so I took it easier for one more week
Cycling national championships were supposed to be held at the end of May, and I was in very good cycling shape then, but the race got canceled because there is a new "rebel federation" that wants to take over. So then at the end of August national championships were announced for September 16 and 17 (time trial and road race). It is very typical in Bolivia to let people know about important races 2 or 3 weeks before. In the real world that would be about a year. But anyway, I was not asked to ride for La Paz in the time trial or in the road race where 5 riders from each department compete. Over the years in Bolivia I have learned to expect very little of anything or anyone, so this was not even a big surprise or a big disappointment. It did bother me a little bit that one guy who is always wayyy slower than me was there competing.
