Wrecked My Bike On My Second Ride

Over a year ago, I told myself I wouldn’t get a better bike until I reached an arbitrary training goal I set for myself. The goal was to reach an FTP and VO2 max of some numbers that seems ridiculously high to me at the time. I have dreams of someday going pro, and maybe, just maybe I’ll hit it. I thought this goal would force myself to prove how serious I am about cycling, and help me be sure it isn’t just a phase. Well, I finally hit my fitness goal after 15 months of training, and I had some money that I had been setting aside to save, so I went out and bought my dream bike. I bought the Canyon Ultimate CFR with Dura Ace di2. They had it on sale for $7,500 down from $10,000.

Today, on my second time riding the bike, I wrecked it. I have no memory of how it happened. I last thing I remember was riding in the downtown area of La Jolla Shores, CA, and then my memory goes blank. The next thing I know, I’m being woken up sitting on the sidewalk by police officers telling me I crashed. “What?” I asked them, not understanding where I was or what was going on. “Where am I?” I looked down and saw blood dripping my knees, hip, and the backs of my hands. I tried to move, and felt a sharp pain in my collarbone. My collar bone was rotated 90° and creating a bulge on my chest. I had definitely broken it. I’ve never crashed before. Never even broken a bone. I rode to the hospital in an ambulance to discover that I broke my scapula and my clavicle.

I had a family member take some closer photos of the bike, and by some miracle, I think the frame is salvageable. I only see damage on the right chainstay, that may be able to be repaired. The rear derailleur also was ripped off the bike, but everything else seems intact.

I’m still very much in shock. I’m really scared. I’m typing this out at 11:30 PM as I lie in my hospital bed waiting for my surgery tomorrow morning. I don’t know if I’ll be too scared to cycle. I’m filing a police report to see if this was a hit and run, because I can’t remember anything. The police said someone else called 911 when they saw me lying in the street after crashing my bike, but there were no witnesses that came forward that saw how I crashed the bike. I went from feeling on top of the world to everything being turned upside down.

My helmet also broke into two pieces, and I think it literally saved my life. It was a brand new Met Trenta Carbon helmet that retails for $380. I just got it to match the new bike. My Oakleys broke. The EMTs cut my kit to get it off me. My smartwatch shattered.

Does anyone have any advice for my situation? I seems like Met, Rapha, and Canyon have crash replacement and repair programs that may help. I also don’t know where to start to file a police report or see if there exists any footage of the accident. I think it may have been a hit and run, and without footage, I’ll never know.

And let me know if the frame looks okay. It scratched up but looks like it may be mostly fine.