The lastest news from Tracy Lea

Damian wishes to extend a Happy Thanksgiving and very special thanks to the NY cycling community who have so generously supported him on his road to the 2012 Paralympics. Damian just returned to Cuba after a non incident-free Parapan American Games in Mexico.

The racing started with the TT, which should be safe and incident free, but not this time – he managed to have a mechanical pre TT – his team car drove his bike into a roof of a tunnel damaging the Shimano electronic shifting leaving him with just one gear. With no time to do repairs, he raced his single gear bike anyway. All was going ok until a race motorcycle did something to cause him to crash. He finished but he ended up with 8 stitches in his stump along with some other minor injuries.

The docs told him he could not race any more in the Games but a few stitches did not stop him – he raced the kilo and pursuit – He had to race without his prosthetics due to the stitches in his stump. The kilo and pursuit are tough for him given his very non aero position. His times in the track events were not fast but he did get UCI points and he was the crowd favorite – fans were waiving the People Magazine for him to sign!

After much consultation with the medical team he was cleared to race the road race. And race he did! He made some breaks only to have the field come back together – finishing 4th– an excellent finish and more UCI points. His 4th place in the road race has helped move him along the path to securing his London spot! Travel plans are set for him to come to LA in Feb to race Para Track Worlds and the World Cup in Canada this coming July.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of his friends in NY from Damian!