[BMC Racing’s] Brent Bookwalter and Karsten Kroon are each recovering from broken collarbones.

Bookwalter underwent surgery in Utah last Wednesday to repair his left collarbone. The American suffered the injury in a crash at the Volta a Catalunya on March 26. Bookwalter said he hoped to be on the bike in another two weeks.

…

“We’ll take another X-ray [of Kroon] in the next 7-10 days and based on that, we can let him train outside on smooth, flat roads,” said [team doctor Max] Testa. “If everything goes well, it would be nice to have him back to full training in four weeks.”

Kroon would not rule out a start at Liége-Bastogne-Liége on April 24. “The pressure I will put on the fracture with riding my bike is the good pressure since it is pressed together,” he said. “Pain will be the limiting factor.”

I understand that these “men” are more akin to machines than human beings. The things they are capable of putting their bodies through, for weeks at a time, are amazing. Most people couldn’t finish a single day of a pro tour, let alone finish in a time allotment, or do it for 22 days in a row.

Still, I continue to be amazed at professional cyclists. Taking 2 weeks off for a broken collarbone. That’s it? Starting a professional race after only 3 weeks? That’s absolutely amazing!

My doctor ordered 12 weeks off (of which I obeyed my doctor’s orders for 10 weeks). And while I desperately wanted to be back on my bike as soon as possible, that just wasn’t feasible. No amount of percocet was going to get me through that kind of pain and back on a bike. I don’t think you should be riding a bike while on percocet.