News

Injured Macca wishes his Tour Down Under peers well

By Karen Forman in Adelaide, January 15

Chin up!
Photo: © Susan Stewart

Salute Macca!

Where some other athletes would be ranting and raving with anger or crying upon themselves in self pity after being injured just a few days before their all-important season opener, iteamNova.com's David McKenzie is quietly nursing his wounds and wishing other contenders in this week's Tour Down Under the very best of luck.

Resting at home in Melbourne after his release from hospital yesterday, McKenzie, who would have started tonight's first stage criterium with the Australian Institute of Sport team had it not been for a nasty altercation with a parked taxi during an early morning training session in Melbourne last Friday, said he was "frustrated as hell".

But Macca, known for his easy going nature and resilience in times of adversity - with the prime example being shock folding of the Linda McCartney team last year - is being realistic about his situation.

"It could have been a lot worse," he said down the phone line from Melbourne, in a classic Macca-style understatement.

"I am off the bike for at least four weeks and the doctors say I will not be able to race for at least six weeks, but at least I am okay. And it happened at the start and not mid season, which is a bonus I guess."

Still, it cannot be all that easy to watch your team mates taking part in an event that you not only wanted to compete in because you love competing - but because you figured it would be rather important to the future of your new professional team.

At the launch of iteamNova.com. the world's first publicly subscribed and Internet based trade team, in Melbourne in December, McKenzie said the Tour Down Under and the Australian Road Championships would both be important launching pads for the team.

He was quoted saying he hoped to take the Australian rainbow jersey on the back of one of the team members... and a Tour Down Under win (as part of the AIS team) would have served him well.

"It's funny, it sounds silly initially, but a minute after the accident, my first thought was, `I'm gonna miss the nationals," he said today. "And when I looked at my leg I knew that the Tour Down Under would be out as well.

Ouch
Photo: © Susan Stewart

"Two days later I realized I was pretty lucky... It could have been lot worse. The surgeon said I was only millimetres away from cutting the feeling out. I missed every vital artery and nerve endings of my leg and the tendons around my knee."

Although iteamNova.com made an appearance too late to clinch a start in the Tour Down Under, Macca's presence as part of the AIS team would have given it a look-in.

Third placegetter in the national championship, Robert Tighello, has been given McKenzie's berth instead.

"That's good," McKenzie said. "Robert got third in the nationals, he is obviously riding well and when they are riding well like that they deserve a spot…"

"It's just a little bit frustrating that I cannot be there. I felt like I trained really hard around Christmas... now I feel it is wasted. In one month's time I will be back to where I started from... it's just frustrating. I can see how athletes in general get frustrated when they are injured. There is nothing you can do... "

With a gash in his thigh and face, Macca is pretty much confined to the house.

"It's not like I can go swimming or go to the gym... I can't walk to the café for coffee," he said.

"I guess it is just frustration I am feeling more than anything. I just wish I could have done something for the team... my form was okay, I won at Port Arlington (in the Skilled Geelong Bay Classic)."

The accident, which sidelined him, came during an easy training ride with his teammates.

"We had had just left home about 20 minutes earlier and were crossing an intersection with major tram lines across it.

"I was on the inside at the front with Russell Downing. He dodged a pothole and his wheels got stuck on a track and basically he steered onto me and knocked me off balance.

"I turned left, almost regained my balance, but hit the mirror of a parked taxi, which pulled my handlebars in even further.

"I struggled to hold it, then passed another parked truck and all of a sudden the bike was gone from underneath me.

"I landed on my feet... trying to work out how it all happened. My shorts didn't even rip. But there was a gash through to the bone on my leg."

It was horrific, he said.

"I was conscious the whole time," he said. "I looked down my leg... it was unbelievable really, there was blood everywhere. My whole leg was opened… like a horror movie.

"I lay down or sort of collapsed down on the road. The guys came around me... saw my leg and face... it took a big gash out of my jaw as well."

An ambulance arrived within five minutes and Macca was operated on two or three hours later.

"They had to stitch up my leg and jaw... five layers of stitches," he said.

So what now, besides following reports of the Tour Down Under on www.cyclingnews.com?

"I am gonna watch the Australian tennis open… thank God it's on, I was going to crack," he said with a laugh.

And when will we see him back on the bike?

"They said I can be back light riding in four weeks and maybe racing in six weeks," he said.

"I might not be able to race till get I back till Europe on March 4 after the Tour of Tassie... but maybe I might get to do that."