The weather in Seattle on Friday was mild, cloudy and dry — abnormal for winter in the Pacific Northwest, but welcome.
So Ian Crane slipped on some tights, sunglasses, gloves, helmet and a uniform emblazoned with his team’s Jamis-Hagens Berman logo, loaded his bike with a water bottle and GPS, and pedaled steadily for 90 minutes on a ride he’s done, by his estimate, at least 200 times.
It was a milestone day for Crane, his first time riding outdoors in six months since a horrific crash during Stage 7 of the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado last summer that sent him careening chin-first through the back window of a team car.
“I didn’t stop smiling the whole ride,” Crane said in a phone interview. “When you’re going outdoors, you get to feel the fresh air, temperature changes, and the speed. The speed of cycling is something I love — just to be cruising along at 20 miles per hour felt like a massive sprint to me because I’ve been so immobile. It’s more rewarding to go outside outside because you’re accomplishing a task, moving forward.
“It felt like a whole new ride.”
Crane sustained a traumatic brain injury, numerous broken bones and facial lacerations in the Stage 7 crash as he raced to catch up to the peleton after a mechanical failure with his bike. He has no memory of the crash. He’s undergone numerous surgeries. His doctor lost count of the number of stitches he’s had sewn in his body. In January, he had surgery just so he could open his mouth a bit wider. His mouth, Crane said, had “pretty much been surgically recreated.” The scars across his face, neck and chest are healing, he’s progressed out of speech therapy and his day-to-day functioning has improved.
“Every new doctor is pretty shocked where I’m at, given where I should be on paper,” he said. “I don’t have any fear of bike racing.
“Right now, I feel the same as I did seven months ago. I feel like normal Ian. The doctors are very quick to say that once you are a victim of a traumatic brain injury, you’re always going to have that with you. And how that shows itself is kind of a question mark.
“But the doctor’s favorite line — ‘But you don’t know what you don’t know.’ You don’t know what’s going to come up until it happens.”
On Friday’s ride he took extra precaution, going through corners slowly and giving himself plenty of time to stop before stoplights. Crane calls the process humbling. His American team, Jamis-Hagens Berman, has signed him to a contract for the 2015 season.
“This is definitely the biggest challenge, the only tragedy I’ve had to go through,” Crane said. “I’m learning how I react to these sorts of things, and how I deal with it. The biggest thing I’ve noticed: I’m a very positive person now. I’m always trying to find the good or the light in things, whether it’s something completely difficult like riding the trainer indoors all day in the winter. I stayed positive. I’m really relying on that positivity to get through things.”