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Phil Gaimon’s retirement just got a whole lot worse

Youtube Worst Retirement Ever personality Phil Gaimon was filming a segment racing track bikes in Pennsylvania when he crashed hard suffering multiple broken bones and a collapsed lung

If you thought Phil Gaimon’s Worst Retirement Ever bit was getting old, the former American pro managed to bring new meaning to the title of his series of Youtube videos when he crashed racing on a velodrome in Pennsylvania.

While filming the latest installment of his series in Valley Preferred Cycling Center in the Trexlertown, Gaimon went down hard in a race and fractured five ribs, his collarbone, scapula and suffered a partially collapsed lung.

In a video on his channel, Gaimon described having a collapsed lung as scary. He went on to say that he was lucky to have health insurance but as many American’s aren’t afforded that privilege, he hopes to mobilize his fan base to raise money for a charity organization working to end child hunger called No Kid Hungry.

Gaimon had an ambitious travel and riding schedule for the summer planned around his No kid Hungry campaign which he intended to document on Youtube but the injury throws a wrench in those plans. As of Monday afternoon, Gaimon has raised over $50,000 of his $100,000 goal.

“So my first track race did not go well as you can see, I’m going to get back in there and catch those guys, to be honest I think I can pull it off. No, it didn’t go well, I don’t remember exactly what happened, but I hit the deck.”

Gaimon remains optimistic that he’ll be able to return from the injury. After retiring from pro cycling, Gaimon became well known for chasing KOMs on Strava before launching a Youtube channel documenting his efforts which morphed into a regular series he called Worst Retirement Ever. The title poked fun at the fact that despite retiring he was still training, staying fit and suffering for his post-career series. The injury certainly makes that retirement even more arduous.

Gaimon is hardly the most high profile rider to suffer a horrible injury recently. Four-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome suffered a career-altering injury in a high-speed crash while doing a recon of the time trial at the Criterium de Dauphine. Froome reportedly lost four pints of blood, and broke his right femur, his hip, fractured his elbow and a rib when he went into a wall at 55 km/h. Unlike Gaimon, Froome was not racing but instead had removed one hand from the handlebar of his TT bike to blow his nose.