Four weeks ago J.J. Haedo was out motorpacing in Girona when a dog darted in front of his friend’s motorcycle. The driver hit the brakes; Haedo hit the motorcycle and broke his hand.

After an initial X-ray failed to reveal any breakage, Haedo continued to ride for a week, even starting Castilla y Leon.

“I tried to race,” he said. “I did the prologue, but on the next day I had to pull out because there was too much pain.”

He then got an MRI, which revealed the crack. He wore a hard cast for two weeks. Now, for this fourth week since the accident, he has been taping the hand.

For Tuesday’s stage 2 of the Tour de Georgia, Haedo had a little padding on his palm underneath the tape to damp vibration. He also had his bars wrapped twice in tape — “Paris-Roubaix-style,” he said.

“It’s probably healed, but it still hurts,” he said. “Also, a lot of the pain now is in my tendons, because I had my hand fixed at an angle for two weeks. And I’m not recovering properly, since I have to race.”

Haedo did not contest the stage 1 sprint, as he was unsure how his hand would feel, and he was concerned about crashing. On stage 2 he didn’t tell his team to ride for him, again unsure of his condition.

“Today after 2.5-3 hours it was really painful until 200m to go,” he said. “But with 200m I didn’t feel a thing.”