Note: The following is an account of Michael Barry's unlucky stage 8, where unfortunately he crashed. Michael has been superb in responding to the many Pedal readers who have been following Barry's first grand tour, and the Pedal staff join his fans in wishing him a speedy recovery.

Here is Michael's account: It was stage eight. Three of us went down and off the road at about 65 kph. I landed on my chin, hands and knees, but then a moto (press motorcycle) hit me and came to a stop with me under the front wheel. I tried to get up but the front wheel was on top of me with the guys still on the bike. When I finally got up i was bleeding like someone out of “Friday the 13th”. Once I figured out where I was bleeding from, and whether or not I could climb back on my bike, I got going again. I never really thought about the next kilometer, the next climb or the finish; I was only thinking about the moment.

I lost everything in the crash and when I got going again I was pretty much naked – my gold necklace was gone, my gloves, jersey and shorts shredded, my glasses in pieces, my radio ground to the inner wires and my helmet left at the roadside. Dirk Demol, our second director was awesome in getting me to the finish – just giving me support but never making me go beyond where I wanted to push myself and always checking to see if i was ok. The riders I was in the gruppetto (group of riders riding to make time-cut) with were great as well, giving me a push if I needed to close a gap and offered me food and drink.

I have a lot of nice cuts and road rash, a real beauty from the moto tire, but I am on the mend and should be back home in a week. I feel very fortunate that it wasn't worse – the moto didn't go over me completely and that I didn't break any bones.

Thanks for all your support,

Michael.

Michael Barry is a 26-year-old professional cyclist on the United States Postal Team. This is his first Tour of Spain. His personal web site is michaelbarry.ca

Although Michael is out of the Vuelta, Pedal is proud to offer an exciting Q & A column with Michael Barry for the remainder of the race. Pedal readers can forward any questions they wish for us to ask Barry during the course of the Tour to pedal@passport.ca (please cc mattsh@hotmail.com). Please include your full name and address with your email. We will do our best to have all questions that we receive answered and posted each day.