Simon Gerrans is trying to remain optimistic after fracturing his elbow in his first race of the year yesterday, Strada Bianche.

Having broken his collarbone in December while training on his mountain bike, Gerrans missed most of the Australian summer of racing, and now has suffered a further setback in his quest to find form for the Ardennes Classics.

“To be starting the season a bit later and having seen so much racing happen until this point in time, I was really keen to get amongst it,” Gerrans wrote on his website.

Gerrans went on to describe just how the incident happened. The veteran Australian, who is looking to defend his Liege-Bastogne-Liege title next month, even tried to race on before he realized he was injured.

“It was an incident that happened on the bitumen, so not even on the gravel section, and it was just a silly little racing incident that could have happened in any race,” Gerrans said.
 

“The guy just in front of me touched the wheel in front of him, we were going quite slow because it was on a small climb, and I had no where to go so I hit the brakes hard to avoid him. I went up on my front wheel and then I got hit from behind so it took me over the front. I put my hands down to break my fall and that’s how I must have injured my elbow.”

X-rays revealed he had fractured the radial head of his elbow, an injury he had sustained before, during the 2010 Tour de France.

“Funnily enough, it’s an injury I have had in the past. I had the same sort of fracture to this same elbow in the 2010 Tour de France so it’s not something I am unfamiliar with.”

“Back then I was about ten days in a cast and I rode the home trainer nearly that entire period and then I was back on the road pretty quickly.”

“I am really hoping it’s going to be a similar scenario here, where I will keep the cast on my arm for ten days or so, where I plan to spend quite a bit of time on the home trainer and then I hope to be back on the road a few days prior to Catalunya and still racing there.”