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Mahe Drysdale - Source: ONE Sport
As Mahe Drysdale lay bruised and battered on a road on the outskirts of Munich, the first thing New Zealand rowing's man on a mission did was feel his legs.
At a time like that - when a malfeasant motorist has just sent you flying off your bike and on to the unforgiving embrace of the tarmac - you dread the worst and hope for the best.
In Drysdale's case, any damage to his legs could have been fatal to his decade-long quest to bring back the single scull gold from the London Olympics.
The 33-year-old five-time world champion has spoken out for the first time following last week's cycling accident that forced him to withdraw from the Munich World Cup regatta - the last competitive hitout before London.
He said he was confident the crash, in which he was struck by a car at a roundabout and landed heavily on his hip and shoulder, would prove only a "speed bump" in his Olympic quest.
He planned to be back on the water today, when the squad resumes training in Switzerland.
Drysdale suffered a grade two AC joint injury to his shoulder, some soreness in his ribs, and cuts and bruises. It's nothing, he says, that he can't shake off.
"The worst bit is lying on the ground running through your body trying to work out what's wrong," he reflected. "As soon as I realised my legs were OK that was a huge relief. So it was the ribs and shoulder and it was hard to assess how bad that was.
"I'm back on the bike, though it's mainly stationary training as my bike is pretty much written off. Every day I go on the erg for a bit longer.
"[Today] I'm likely to be out on the boat. I still don't have quite enough range to row properly, but I'll assess how I'm going.
"Every day I seem to be improving, so that's the main thing."
Drysdale's gut feeling is that the accident - the German woman driver was kind enough to drive him and his disfigured bike back to headquarters - hasn't caused too much disruption to his preparations.
"Physically, I don't think it would have affected me at all because I can do all the work I need to on the bike. In some ways maybe the forced break will be good for me. I know already I'm itching to get back in the boat."
So he's viewing the crash as a "minor speed bump" and nothing more.
"The fact I can still train is a huge thing," he says. "I know what it's like to be injured and not be able to train. That's a miserable place to be because you feel like you're getting behind.
"I feel like I can continue to go on and it's just a matter of getting back in the boat and technically starting where I left off coming away from [the Holland Beker regatta] in Amsterdam."
It was that last hitout, where Drysdale crushed chief Olympic rival Ondrej Synek by 6sec, that has the Kiwi confident he can take this latest setback in his stride.
"If I'd only had Lucerne I would have felt a little underdone. To have another opportunity to race against Synek in what was arguably a tougher race than Munich, it was good to get that under my belt."
Plus, this wasn't exactly a new situation for Drysdale, who only cycles because a long-standing back injury limits his time in the scull.
Last year he came a cropper the day before the world championships in Bled, and shook that off to claim gold.
"It's been unfortunate timing for both my crashes, but I've got to look at it and say I've done about 30,000km and only come off twice - both times when cars hit me. In a lot of ways I've been fairly lucky."
He described the Munich single scull final, won convincingly by Marcel Hacker, as a "dismal race", that told him little about prospects for London other than the German was a potential threat again.
"He hasn't really showed that since about 2006," said the gold medal favourite.
But Munich did see some serious statements made by many of Drysdale's Kiwi team-mates, most notably the two lightweight doubles and the rejuvenated heavyweight double of Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen.
Drysdale was especially impressed with lightweight doubles Louise Ayling and Julia Edward, who continued their dramatic strides this year with gold.
"They've taken themselves from kind of A finalists to medal potential, and that's very exciting.
"It was great also to see Joe and Nathan come back from a disappointing finish in Lucerne to be right back up there and hunting for medals again."