Warriner battling after bike accident

Sam WarrinerWhangarei triathlete Sam Warriner believes she is lucky to be alive after being knocked off her bike on Tuesday during a training ride in Simi Valley, near Los Angeles.
Warriner was cycling with another athlete when the door of a parked car opened suddenly, knocking both riders off their bikes.
Her training partner went straight into the door, and her bike took most of the impact, but Warriner was knocked off her cycle into the line of traffic.
Warriner said from her training camp base at Simi Valley: "I'm pretty upset and I'm in a lot of pain, but I'm okay.
"Someone had been sitting there in their car for ages, when they opened the door without looking.
"My bike was snapped into pieces and written off ... that could  [have] been me."
Warriner was rushed to hospital and surfaced with a lot of swelling on her left side and shoulder, plenty of road rash, bruised kidneys and bruised or possibly fractured ribs, which cannot be diagnosed properly until the swelling has reduced.
The accident comes at a crucial and busy time for Warriner.
It happened a week and a half out from her third ITU World Championship Triathlon Series race in Washington DC.
Warriner is currently the fifth-ranked athlete competing in the seven-race series, after finishing eighth at Tongyeong in South Korea and seventh at Madrid, where she had started to find great form on the bike and run.
Following the third leg of the series,  on June 21 in Washington DC, is the ITU Elite Cup on June 27 and the ITU Teams Triathlon Championships on June 28.
Both races are at Des Moines in the US, where Warriner was scheduled to compete with the Kiwi contingent including Bevan Docherty, Kris Gemmell and Andrea Hewitt.
"It's really disheartening because it's my race season," Warriner said.
"I'm here to train and I can't even train at the moment - it's up in the air as to when I can start again; it's frustrating."
Warriner has been based in the US for the past few months, training with her coach, two-time world champion Siri Lindley, reaping the benefits of specific tri-training.
While the accident has shaken Warriner, the hardy competitor has proven already this year she can overcome significant mishaps.
In April, Warriner was stung in the ankle by a stingray while swimming, with the barb missing her tendon by 4mm. A day later, she raced in the half-ironman 70.3 California race as preparation for the World Series.
A determined Warriner said she was hopeful her body would  recover in time  for her race on June 21.