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Sophie Z'OursDear all,
It is hard to find my words to tell you how bad I feel.
To tell you right know what happens: François, our dear friend and best pilot, ended up at the hospital, quite seriously injured: a clavicule broken (thanks God, not the shoulder he injured in April), a tibia broken somewhere near the knee (surgery needed) and some rib(s?) broken too... 
Not a drop of blood though.
The scooter was injured too but our three others pilots managed to finnish the race without any problem.
Well, I am gonna tell you all in detail now, so you can understand the situation.
First, François, Malko and I left friday in the end of the afternoon, and the boys had quite a busy day at the workshop (François's cycle workshop). they quickly shower in our flat and we left at 7:15 pm. We took the highway and all was ok until we reached the exit of the highway: there we had two possibilities and did not know which one to choose. so we phoned our friend who arrived much more earlier at the circuit. He helped us finding our way. The end of the trip was in a very beautiful place: we were driving for a few km along the Seine and there were beautiful houses to see all along. We finally reached the circuit at about 9:30 pm and found our friends there. We mounted our tent and then had a late dinner. There was no electricity yet so we had only our little torch to get a bit of light. Our neighbours for another team had an electric group, lucky them. The only thing is that they did not stop it before late in the night and that disturbed us a lot to have a good sleep. In addition, another team installed nearby has been working late on its scooter and was quite noisy! Arrrgh! So bad first night.
Saturday, we woke up early to get prepared for the assays of the morning. The essays went fine. Our scooter was just perfect. We just had something to re-arrange for the brakes. We had a good timing for the ranking for departure.
Departure was at 4:00 pm. Greg took the first round. He fell once, but nothing serious at all, no wound or whatever and was quickly back on the scooter. After he finnished his one hour round, François took the second one and then the nightmare began...
First fall because of another pilot who fell too. François got a bit nervous and they both went back on their machine without any wound. A little bit later, catastroph! I did not see what happened but just saw our François lying on the grass, the scooter lying a few meters far on the grass too. François stayend on the grass, and did not even manage to sit down. We saw the firt aid people running to him and busy around him. After a few minutes, they tranported him on a stetcher to their temporary "hospital" under their tent. and then we waited, waited, waited. After what looked liked ages, we noticed, he was again transported, this time towerd the outside of the circuit and we gussed they called an ambulance. So I runned as fast as I could to reach the ambulance and asked what happened. Then I was told about his injuries. He was suffering a lot eventhough they gave him some morphin. I ended up going with him in the ambulance, but was not given time to take my wallent which stayed in our van! So we went to rouen in a big hospital. It took us more than 30 min to reach the hospital as first the first hundred meters were a very bad road and the ambulance had to drive very very slowly. Then the road had a lots of bends.
Once in the hospital, my poor François and I had to wait a lot time to do the admin stuff. I was reading the pain into François' eyes and my heart was bleeding for him. Then he was finally took in a room for some doctors to look at him. I was not allowed to stay so I went to the waiting room. I waited for ages, and when I really got fed up waiting I asked someone to check out the situation. the man came back and said me I could see François. He was abandonned in that room, still suffering and wondering when the guys would come back to make this plaster to his leg. A moment later they finally went to make the plaster. The plaster is a temporary one to wait until he can go for some surgery. Finally he was installed in a bedroom at about 9:00 pm and was given some strong medicine to suffer less.
That was all concerning François.
There was another story. I told you earlier I was not givien time to pick up my wallet and told only at the last moment I would go with François. So I went with empty pockets!
I sort of understood that my team would send me someone to pick me up at the hospital. so i spent all my evening waiting for someone to pick me up plus worrying about François!!!
Malko managed to give me his cellular phone before we went to the hospital, but for a reason we ignore, we could not get the phone to work! malko tried once to join us but their was no network and we could not answer!!! In addition, we add no phone number to call to join our team!!!!
Result was: no one came to pick me up... At 1:00 pm i said I had no reasn to wait more longer and asked a nice nurse to call a taxi and i went back to the circuit in the taxi. A chance François had some cash money in his wallet which stayed too in our van (would have been too simple if François had his wallet with him at the hospital). It cost 73 euros for the taxi :/...
Believe me, I will never forget that horrible day!
I was back at the circuit at midnight. My team was busy with the race. No one realised I was waiting for one of them to pick me up. they did not even worry about me! just Malko tired a few times to phone me with no success.
Before François fell, we were 5th of the race. Went Lacen could finally take his round after we got the scooter back and they got it repaired, our team ranked 24/36. When I was back, they ranked 12/36, so much better.
At half past midnight, Malko and I went back to the tent for a sleep. Malko woke up at 4:35 am to be back to help with mechanics. I woke up a bit later. Our team ranked 10/36 at about 9:00 am.
We finnished the race ranked 8/36 and this was the best result of the team for the 24 hours races so we were quite pleased with the result.
We finally did not have a lot of rain, but the rain caused a lot of pilots falling, but no serious injuries.
I will post pictures when I have time and when I feel in a better mood.
Yesterday, we left the place at about 6:30. Malko had to drive the van as François was not there anymore. We were sad we had no time to go to Rouen to visit him.
After we emptied the van at Lacen's home (another of our pilots), we went to François' home to give the van to his wife. We were happy to learn she managed to join the hospital and to talk to the doctor and to François. She was not too upset has she understood that he had nothing too serious: only broken bones.
Poor François said me that he will not do scooter races anymore, because before this year he never had such injuries and feared to have more accidents. That's very hard for him to stop racing has he loves it so much and is our best pilot, but his health is much more important.
His wife had planned to visit him today, so I gave her Valentino and some books and a gentle postal card to give to François.
He did not have surgery yesterday so I hope he will have it today.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
PS: Sorry for the long post, but i had to vent!
Matilda Huggington-beareOh Sophie , such an adventful weekend. So Sorry to hear about Francois injuries. His wife must be relieved that they arent more serious. 
Maybe you should start writing novels because you had me thoroughly engrossed in your saga. :hug:
Baird'sBears How awful, Sophie
I hope Francois will be on the mend soon, poor man.j
Your day sounds like a nightmare :hug:
Patsy Lake BearsSophie I am sorry for your nightmare... but it sounds as though the team did well coming 8th ... thank you for sharing your weekend.
Past Time BearsSophie . . . I'm so glad your weekend wasn't worse! Sounds like you did very well under the circumstances. Sorry about Francois, but very glad he wasn't hurt more than he was. I wish for you rest and comfort in the days to come. :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:
Mountain Dreamer BearsOh, Sophie! I'm so sorry for such a horrible day. I hope François comes through his surgery fine and heals quickly. Many hugs to you1
Bine-TeddiesSo sorry about your horrible weekend Sophie! :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: It could have been worse though and your team did well despite the accident. The hospital sounds even worse than ours. I hate it when they make you wait and won't even give you enough pain killers. I hope François will be up and running soon again.
Sophie Z'OursThank you for your nice words, girls! They mean a lot for me.
We phone François twice today François: he will have surgery for his leg only on thursday (this because he cannot pass the scanner before wednesday 
).
Eventhough he has quite good pain killers, it is not very easy for him.
The good point is that he has now another man sharing his bedroom with whom he can chat, so he is not alone anymore.
He was very happy to learn the team managed to finnish eighth of the race.
His wife brought him Valentino to give him some comfort. So now I am convinced he is safe: between the nice nurses and Valentino, what can happen to him? 
He is in a good hospital, but the only problem is that there are not enough surgeons etc.
I think tomorrow I will feel better myself as I still need some sleep...
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
DoodlebearsOh poor you Sophie and poor Francois. 
vI do hope he gets well soon. What a nightmare of a weekend for you. If Francois injuries are stoping him from being your driver who will drive for you now?
Hugs Jane. 
Sophie Z'OursOh, Jane, François in not MY driver!
François and Lacen bought together the racing scooter and are the two main pilots of the team.
They began racing a long time ago, even if not always together.
Malko and I joined the team this year: Malko as mechanic and me as the team photographer .
François used to be a good friend of Malko's dad, and since Malko and I are living closeby François's workshop, we became very closed friends.
Lacen will probably buy François's part of the scooter and will keep racing with other pilots.
Beary hugs,
Sophie.
Posts: 8,574 I don't blame him a bit for feeling some fear right now....Fear is healthy, it keeps us from doing things that can hurt us.Bless his heart....sometimes all the pain medication in the world doesn't completely free one of pain.
Please give him our best wishes from TeddyTalk. Tell him all the girls are rooting for him! You don't have to tell him most of us are over 50.....
gollyhugs
dilu
