Roger Lee has officially paid his dues. After viewing this disturbing image we were struck by one thought: that's the cleanest bachelor bathroom we've ever seen. image by nick hayden

Yesterday afternoon, after Roger Lee Hayden finished explaining what had happened to him in his recent bicycle crash, I asked him the big question:

Okay, really, I wondered, how bad is it?

I've been around this game for a while. I've seen some horrific skin abrasions in my day; I once sat in the next exam room over as the ... gentle nurses ... at Brainerd's own St. Joe's hospital cleaned the asphalt out of a fellow injured racer's abraded back using a wire brush (yes, really). That man's screams used to haunt me, but I digress.

"Are you near you computer?" Hayden asked.

"I'm awake," I answered sarcastically ...

"Check your e-mail," Hayden said. "Nick took some pictures of me while my crew chief's wife was changing my bandages."

I punched send/recieve and RLH's e-mail dropped into my in-box. I opened the attached picture, swallowed hard and spoke.

"Whoa," I said.

"Yeah," Hayden replied. "It ain't no joke."