By Shane Stokes
Magnus Backstedt was aiming to make another attempt at the world hour derny record last Autumn but those plans were scrapped when he had a bad fall. Months later, he said on Monday that he is still suffering from the after-effects of the crash.
"The form is good but I am struggling big time with my shoulder. I am not really sure what to do. You name it, I have tried it - physio, everything. It has all been done. But it is not improving. I am sort off as a position now where I don't know what to do with it as it is not getting any better.
"At a moment I'm just trying to keep training and will start today and tomorrow to see what happens with the shoulder. After yesterday it was getting quite a lot worse. Sore doesn't cut it, really."
The giant Swede explained how the crash happened. "I was doing Madison training down the track in Newport in October. We mistimed a Madison change and the guy that I was riding with came in straight underneath my wheels at 60 kilometres an hour. There is nothing you can do when that happens, I just went down and that was it. I thought I had just snapped my collarbone which means that after three weeks you are good to go again, but it turned out to be a lot worse.
"It was a fifth degree separated shoulder, so all the ligaments had gone. Anything that was in there previously is not in there any more. The collarbone went straight up through the trapezius muscle. I'm struggling big time with flexibility and I have still got a metal plate in my shoulder as well, which causes even more stiffness.
"It is unfortunate because I was going to go for the derny record. But what can you do? I will keep on working and hope that things improve and take it from there. Sooner or later it will sort itself out, but would rather it was on the sooner side! For now, the Classics are still a target and until a moment I decide I can't actually ride with this, then they still will be on the list."
