Elk Grove Village mayor cycling for first time after crash
“It was kind of an eerie feeling,” said Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson, talking about returning to the scene of the June bicycle crash in which he suffered life-threatening injuries.
The spot on the pavement where Johnson fell on Cosman Road near Lake Cosman still bears the markings made by emergency personnel who responded to the accident.
The quiet neighborhood street has little vehicular traffic and an unobstructed view of the road ahead — ideal for cycling.
“Part of me was hoping it would make me get some memory back of what happened,” said Johnson, adding the first few weeks after the crash are a blur.
Johnson had been riding with about 15 bicyclists when his front tire clipped the back tire of the rider ahead of him during their final sprint.
He was catapulted over the bicycle's handlebars at roughly 33 miles per hour. His body tumbled a few times in mid air before his head struck the pavement, landing on his right side.
Johnson was knocked unconscious for several minutes and could not breathe until fellow riders came to his rescue.
The June 29 crash left Johnson with five broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken collar bone, a muscle tear in his hip joint, a concussion and numerous scrapes and cuts, effectively ending his training for last year's Alexian Brothers Tour of Elk Grove.
Last week, Johnson mounted his Cervélo racing bicycle for the first time since the crash.
Donning his “Team Mayor” racing uniform and a new helmet, Johnson said he was nervous, yet excited to get back on the bicycle, on which repairs had just been completed for damage to the front wheel and handle bar.
“Accidents happen in cars, but you don't stop driving,” said Johnson, now 51. “You've got to face it and ride. Was it horrific? Yes. But it doesn't mean you quit. This is not the first time I fell.”
Johnson likely will need surgery down the road for a broken collar bone that is currently sticking out of his shoulder.
“That's the same shoulder that was rebuilt in 2007 ... because of 30 years of wrestling and lifting weights,” said Johnson, who is Elk Grove High School's head wrestling coach.
Johnson said he will put off having surgery for as long as he can and wait to see if his shoulder heals naturally. Yet, the bigger reason to avoid it is so he can ride again.
“If I can live with what I have, I will,” Johnson said. “I am able to adequately move and get around and I'm happy with that right now.”
When he started cycling again after nine months, Johnson said, it was the first time he felt fully recovered. While he's training and plans to participate in the Mayor's Charity Time Trial, he's noncommittal about whether he will race again in this fall's Tour of Elk Grove, Aug. 5 through 7.
“I'm riding because I enjoy it,” he said. “What happens in the future will be determined by how things are going. I'm going to take it a day at a time.”
He won't race in the Mayor's Challenge; that's been scrapped because race organizers deemed the event too dangerous since participants of widely varying skill levels were competing together.
“It's a safety issue,” said Johnson, who observed the race as a spectator last year and could see the potential for serious accidents. He said the accident made him more cognizant of safety.
Rifling through a stack of get well cards at his home, Johnson said the outpouring of community support “really was humbling to me.”
He also pulled out the tattered uniform from the crash and the bloodstained helmet, which he kept as a grim reminder of how close he came to dying.
“The helmet saved my life; that's why I saved it,” Johnson said. “Besides the scars on my legs and the bone sticking out of my shoulder, it reminds me there's a lot of things in life besides riding a bike.”