Melisa Rollins rolled off to a powerful begin of her new season with the Liv Racing Collective by taking second in January’s RADL GRVL in Australia, however her journey throughout the globe didn’t finish as nicely.
Rollins crashed on the 100km Otway Odyssey mountain bike race in Victoria in late February, and it turned out to be fall that meant as an alternative of heading into the US season with the benefit of southern hemisphere summer time of racing to present her a head begin, she’ll now be lacking out on her deliberate opening occasion, Mid South Gravel, whereas dealing with an prolonged damage break.
“I actually want this could possibly be a publish about how excited I’m to get the season going with Mid South Gravel this weekend… however sadly I received’t be racing for a short time,” stated Rollins in an Instagram post this week. “Two weeks in the past on the Rapid Ascent Otway Odyssey I launched myself off slightly curler and smashed into the touchdown at full velocity — I hit the bottom so onerous that I actually vomited.
“After many hospital visits it’s clear I’ve a damaged left wrist however I’ve been having some intense nerve ache in my proper hand/forearm as nicely which I’m nonetheless within the technique of diagnosing.”
It is a difficult place for final yr’s second-placed rider within the Life Time Grand Prix collection to be in only a month forward of the opening spherical, the Sea Otter Classic on April 10, significantly in a yr the place she has embraced the privateer path for off-road racing with a shift to the Liv Racing Collective, making the soar from BlueRidge Twenty24.
Despite ending second on the six-event Life Time Grand Prix collection in 2024 it wasn’t the best of begins for Rollins in 2024, who got here tenth on the opening spherical at Sea Otter and sat out the second spherical, Unbound, nonetheless her August win at Leadville Trail 100 MTB was the turning level.
If Rollins is absent from Sea Otter this yr it won’t rule her out of the collection, as one spherical might be dropped, however she would must be again for the Unbound 200, the place she completed fifth in 2022, to be eligible for the collection rankings. Unbound is on May 31.
“I really feel fairly fortunate that I’ve been capable of Gumby my manner out of some nasty crashes all through the years principally unscathed, so I determine it’s about time my luck ran out. And although I assumed I might escape coach time this yr with a winter journey to Australia, I suppose that received’t be the case,” stated Rollins.
“See ya once I see ya, gravel.”
