BMC’s Chris Butler first Grand Tour didn’t quite end as he would have liked. Exclusively to Carolina Cycling News, Butler gives us the scoop on his injury and how he is recuperating back home in Greenville, South Carolina.

The injury happened in Wednesday’s stage 5 on a descent when the rider in front of me took a few of us down. I’ve caused a few crashes before, but this time I got the brunt of it. I eventually got back up and crawled to the finish line. The pain lingered and I did three more stages with the aid of some pain killers. I was really suffering those next few days, and finally got an x-ray at the end of stage 8. As soon as the race doctors saw the stable fracture in the pubic section of my right pelvis they pulled me from the race without much talk to me. I was pretty pissed at first, but now I realize the true pain of the injury without pain killers and how much it really was taking off my performance. It would have been really tough to finish the Giro one-legged!

All of the sudden the team flew me back to the United States and I am now here in Greenville (been back for like 12 hours, so everything is still in a whirlwind). Dr. Testa and Dr. Heiden want me to take it easy for a bit more time and get another x-ray in the coming days so they can re-assess the break. I’m trying to minimize the impact on the leg by all means possible (limited walking), I’m also staying away from pain meds, so I will only be able to push my body based on perceived pain rather than masking it and doing damage without knowing it.

Hopefully I don’t piss a way too much fitness during this recovery process sitting on my butt eating ice cream all day!

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