Cycling: Hamish Bond 'missing a fair bit of skin' after crash

Hamish Bond posted an image on social media following his crash. Photo / Instagram @hamish_bond

Olympic rowing champion-turned cyclist Hamish Bond is recovering at home following a nasty crash over weekend, after a "novice" error saw him take a tumble in the wet conditions.

Bond told the Herald he is "missing a fair bit of skin" after Saturday's accident, but he considers himself lucky to escape without any broken bones having taken two heavy falls on the gruelling K2 bike race on the Coromandel.

The second tumble, which occurred at the 110km mark, ended Bond's race, with the double Olympic champion taken to Thames Hospital. Remarkably, despite his earlier fall, he led the race by about two minutes at the time he was forced to withdraw.

Bond said he is feeling pretty banged up and bruised today, but joked it was his pride that sustained the most damage."I'm a bit ginger, I'm missing a fair bit of skin, but I was looked after really well by St John and Thames Hospital," he said.

"In terms of mechanical or bones or anything, I'm really lucky to escape with a few bruises and maybe one or two scars."I'm heading to the District Nurse today to get the bandages changed, so I guess I will have a better idea today of how they're healing up."

Saturday's incident was the first major crash of Bond's road cycling career, which is still in its relative infancy. Bond took up the sport seriously after defending his Olympic gold medal in the pair with Eric Murray in Rio last year.

It was a part of the sport he was hoping to avoid.

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"It's not ideal, I haven't had a fall like that. I haven't had a fall because of the wet or just speed before, so it's a little bit new territory. It's certainly uncomfortable ... and messy."I've tried my best not to make a mess of the sheets at home. I'm bandaged all up, but these sort of grazes they just seep for a few days."

Bond blamed poor tyre selection and pressure for the falls. The 31-year-old crashed earlier in Saturday's race, which was in miserable conditions, but was able to get back on his bike before he caught by the chasing pack. The second tumble occurred on what Bond described as a "benign" part of the course.

"The first time I tumbled I managed to get back on. I was still a bit sore, but I was still in the lead so that was a good impetus to carry on and basically not let anyone know that I just crashed."

"The second time I fell off I was just on a flat piece of road and went around a slight corner and the bike came out from underneath me."I probably made a few novice - well, I'm not sure if I can still claim to be a novice - but slightly inexperienced selections with tyres and the pressure in them, so it meant I had quite as much grip as I was used to.

"Even given the wet I felt I wasn't pushing the limits too much, but regardless I still came a cropper. It's a tough way to learn a lesson around tyre selection and pressures, but I guess I know now."

Bond hopes to be back into light training by the end of the week, but he said he is conscious of not pushing himself too soon.

"Generally you want to rip back into it, especially with a thing like this where you're kind of annoyed with yourself. Especially leading the race and you want to somehow lay down some retribution or almost punish yourself for a silly mistake.

"You have to be sensible and sometimes a little bit of time to let things come right is better than perhaps trying to push back and prolonging the recovery."