Well, positive thinking has proven inneffective. The bone scan indicated a small fracture on my hip. I have an appointment with an orthopedist in Kortrijk on Monday, so I'll find out more about things then. At this point, I don't know how long the recovery time will be. The doctor who examined the bone scan was a general practitioner, and he said he'd never a seen a fracture like this one before. It's not too serious, he says. But, still no bike riding for the next couple days. I asked him what he thought my chances were for racing in a week and a half, and he didn't seem too optimistic. But he didn't rule it out entirely, so I can cling to that possibility for now.

Getting the diagnosis today proved to be quite the odyssey. First, I got a ride into Kortrijk from Cindy's father for an 11:00 appointment. Kortrijk is only 15km from here, but it's all on back roads, so it's almost a 30 minute drive. It turned out that I had to get an injection of something (radioactive?) to highlight the bones, but the scan itself couldn't be done for another 2 hours. So, back to Avelgem. I then drove myself back to Kortrijk on the scooter for the 1:30 scan. It took almost an hour of laying still on the table to get it done. That, of course, excludes the few minutes when they sent me to the bathroom because my bladder was interfering with the scan. Too much information? Anyway, for whatever reason, they did a full body scan instead of just a hip scan. Strangely, the technician asked if I had any back pain as well, then focused the machine on my abdomen for about 10 minutes. Regardless, it took a long time, and I left with a sealed envelope and no information.

So, to get the scan interpreted I had to find a doctor here in Avelgem. Cindy sent me to the family doctor that her and Franky see. He was a really nice guy and didn't charge anything for the visit, but he was a bit unknowledgable. He had to call the hospital in Kortrijk to consult with them about the results. Then he told me essentially nothing. Just stay off the bike until Monday.

But I did discover why the technician had focused on my abdomen. It turned out that I had 3 broken ribs from my crash in Taiwan. They're mostly healed up now, but that's concrete proof that luck is not on my side this season.

Enough whining. I'm going to go drink more Belgian beer. That'll make me better.