Earlier this week, Madshus marathon team racer Oeystein Pettersen was hospitalized after crashing during a group roller ski workout outside Oslo.
“We were lucky. Everyone was wearing a helmet, and we all needed it,” said Pettersen after the accident.
“The split seconds you have while traveling downhill at warp speed and realize this is really going south, are some of the worst. One thing is myself, but when you’re a whole group crashing, it’s terrible. I’m better than most people at roller skiing and have been for most of my life, but today I was really glad I had a helmet,” he said to Norwegian TV station NRK Tuesday evening.
The sprinter-turned-marathon-racer broke a finger that needs surgery, which means a few weeks with his hand in a cast, and also hurt his shoulder and elbow. That throws a wrench in Pettersen’s immediate plan, which was racing the roller ski event Allianzloppet in Sweden this weekend. But Pettersen will be at the event supporting his buddies in Team United Bakeries at the race today, and back in business well before the snow flies.
“This means nothing for the season, but right now it will mean a little more time at home with my family. And the crash certainly was a real wake-up call for me,” Pettersen said.
“We were doing a group workout on a stretch of road that none of us were very familiar with. We’re all good roller skiers, but this hill was just getting steeper and steeper, the pavement got worse and there was gravel and ruts all over. Then it got really twisty too, and we totally lost control,” Pettersen said of the terrain.
“There were people laying on both sides of the road. It was almost like a battle field,” he added.
Pettersen was one of three racers taken to hospital after the accident, while two additional racers were treated at the ER.
Madshus racer Thomas Alsgaard was also part of the group workout, but not among the skiers who crashed. A dozen skiers took part in the workout, which was supposed to be a 5-hour session.