thailandokinawa

Thailand

Friday the 1st of November

I had been sleeping very well this first night at the hotel in Phuket City. I certainly had need of this because I had found it very hard to sleep in the plane from Amsterdam to Bangkok because it was so crowded and stuffed with European tourists going for a cheap holyday in Thailand.

The first thing I normally think of when I get up in the morning is a big breakfast. The few times I have been travelling with MarcoPolo in Asia we have normally stayed at very good hotels where they serve big buffets, also in the morning, and my appetite at this time of the day is enormously. Luckily this hotel was no exception, they served a big and very abundantly morning buffet with a mixture of Thai and European style, for example all kinds of freshly prepared eggs or fried banana. Unfortunately everybody else had planned to go training only one hour after the breakfast, which made it a little inconvenient for me to eat very much, even it was no hard training. I just had to spare the appetite for the lunch!

Since the race started Saturday, and were continuing for the next 5 days, we where only going for a relaxed two hours ride.

When you are used to Danish infrastructure, with a lot of small roads with a good surface and without much traffic, training in a country like Thailand can bee a challenge. The traffic in and around the cities can be extremely heavy and with the lack of road signs, and additionally readable road signs, it occurs a little chaotic and planning a suitable route for training seems impossible. But with a considerably amount of patience and the strategy, lets go in that direction, it's normally possible to find a way out of the crowded city and a decent road to follow.

This training was no exception, but after some random riding around Phuket City, we hit the main road leading to the north for the airport and the mainland. Some times it isn't worth making training too complicated, especially not the day before a race start, because you risk to loose your way and waist some time and energy witch could have been used better for preparations. We made the classic choice and rode one hour in the same direction following the main road, stopped for a drink, turned around and went back the same way.

We didn't have much sightseeing during this training, but on the other hand there isn't really anything to see at the Phuket Island. The island is not really anything but hotels packed with tourists, some beaches, stores, the inevitable street traders and of course plenty of places offering all kinds of massage.

One of the things I noticed going about in the traffic in Thailand, were all the scooters and motorbikes driving with a high speed and sometimes carrying three or maybe even four persons (a whole family). Most often the driver was wearing a helmet but the small children sitting behind, in front of, or in top of the driver had absolutely no helmets. I'm not sure they are making any statistics in Thailand of the number of people killed in the traffic, and maybe it's better to keep it that way.

Biking isn't exactly a major sport in Thailand and the appearance of a group of professional looking racing cyclists (well, that at least what we think ourselves) can attract some attention. This day we met groups of schoolchildren walking along the road and when seeing us they started to cheer and wave very enthusiastically. Its quite fun to see such a reaction, especially when you, as a Danish cyclist, are used to people jeering things like: "dope-addict" or "hey Bjarne (Riis), that's the wrong way if you are looking for France". Personally I try to return the kindness, at least in the start, but within a short time I forget or give up to constantly shout, hi, or wave with both arms and legs. Differently with Kay Kermer, he really knows how to deal with all the attention and never stops returning the greetings. Maybe German athletes are doing special courses concerning how to manage publicity.

By the way, don't forget the sunblocker. The sun is really powerful even if it's autumn and the weather seems a little bit cloudy.

In the afternoon I went, together with Anno and Kay, to the officials meeting. We were going all three of us because it would increase the possibility to catch just a little bit of the information, which were given in Thai and "English". According to the race-organisation the Tour of Thailand would be following the UCI-rules for a 2.5 race even though it was no UCI-race. It seemed to be simple, but for the foreign team representatives it was hard to understand the information given during the 11/2 hour meeting.

It was so funny that the senior-elite was racing together with juniors, old-boys, women and even junior-women. This is great of course for the development of the sport in Thailand, but this meant special rules for the finish. When the junior-riders (or others) were reaching their finish and were going to sprint, they should keep to the left and the elite-riders keep to the right and continue. Along with this there were several strange rules and regulations and any violation would result in either disqualification or a huge fine. For example you were not allowed to raise your arms when crossing the finish line, and you were not allowed to get water from anybody else but the officials and not even your own car. If you actually were disqualified you were still allowed to continue the race but without participating in the competition.

The Crash, by Rasmus Madsen.

I must admit I'm having mixed feelings writing a diary of my, unfortunately, few days of racing in Thailand. It will to some extend by an account of the worst appearance in a bikerace of my career. Moreover it will remind me of the worst experiences of my life ever, which I don't think will be very enjoyable for other people to read about.

I'm not very proud to tell of my accident and other falls with my bike, to be honest, I'm pretty angry with my self and feeling stupid. Anyway I also feel that I have been extremely unlucky this season and particularly in Tour de Thailand. During the nine years I have been doing competition my total numbers of falls are seven, and five of them were this season, three of them in Thailand (have I started to need glasses or something?).

Beforehand I had been looking forward to do these races with the Marco Polo Cycling Club, especially Tour de Okinawa, and of course not all my memories of this trip are bad.

Sunday the 3rd of November My lucky day!

As mentioned I didn't really sleep during the night and maybe it had an influence on my state of mind. Not that I felt especially out of sorts, dizzy, or anything.

In the second stage I crashed two times. The first time I hit a big stone on the road when sitting in the bunch, but that didn't bring much harm. The second time I hit an oncoming car, which obviously had forgotten to pull in, and that finished my race and nearly killed me. I'm not really motivated to bring more details.

Well I'm still alive and considering the circumstances I'm fine. But unfortunately I had a spinal cord injury and at the moment it's still to early to predict whether I'm going to recover fully. In many ways I hope to come back and be able to race in competitions, on the other hand cycling is not everything and I'm happy that the outcome of this accident might only be a few minor handicaps.

As a last thing, be sure to have a health insurance covering you when, you are travelling outside Europe. I had, otherwise I would be broke. Private hospitals are no cheap accommodations and an ambulance transport with the flight back from Bangkok is extremely expensive.

Rob Conijn: "In the second stage Rasmus Madsen had a horrible crash. What was frightening, Rasmus couldn't move his arms and legs anymore. After the crash, Rasmus was driven in an ambulance, together with team manager Anno Pedersen to the first hospital, this one was closed, it was Sunday, the second was not well equipped, the third had possibilities to support aid, however this hospital didn't have the high end scanning tools that were necessary to make correct analyses of the injuries. Finally with all warm help from the Thai people including the race organizers it was made possible to go for a 800 km trip with ambulance to Paolo Hospital in Bangkok lead by famous Doctor.... This was hard for Rasmus and Anno because the accident happened at 11.00 a.m. and the depart to Bangkok was at 20.00 p.m. for a 800 km drive... This was a night mission!

After investigation the analyze was made that Rasmus had a serious problem in his backbone, however the good news was that after heavy revalidation he should recover completely, the doctor said. Rasmus laid down nearly two weeks in hospital in a private room with complete support form Anno Pedersen, the team manager helping with food, helping with reading newspapers, arranging all the things with insurance's, preparing all for repatriating to Denmark. Rasmus backbone was completely fixed, so he had to fly horizontally back, using the surface of 7 seats which were pulled out. This was the most expensive ticket Marco Polo ever arranged, although we have lots of experience!!

Fortunately Rasmus arrived well in Denmark where he had to lay in hospital for more than 2 weeks. He is doing a lot of exercise to recover completely, we have the good news that the progress is very good, so we hope that Rasmus can race in the Marco Polo Cycling Team this year again."