Race # 4 - Touching Ground at Speed
For those of you who raced the CAT 4/5 at PIR on the 18th, that was me who touched wheels and hit pavement. Whew! We were on the final mile or so, everyone’s getting twitchy, and I’m trying to get closer up front. I put my trust in the guy in front of me to stay cool as the speeds increased and as we touched wheels, I didn’t panic nor brake as normally it self corrects. I was as calm as I could be. The very next thing I knew, I felt the impact of the side of my helmet on the ground and I guess I slid for a while. I think everyone was braking too quickly; or he swerved and took my wheel out. The guy behind me crashed too.
Things I would do differently is that deep inside I knew I shouldn’t have been following this particular guy. Some intangible thing was not right. But what are ya gonna do? I’ll follow my gut next time and hopefully be in a better position when things get crazy. I’ll need a new helmet, at some point a new pedal as this one’s unserviceable, redo bar tape, and check my wheels for true. My elbows, wrist, hip and ankle are bandaged. Shoulder, neck achy … all in all okay. Dang, I’ll have to get new Under Armour too. This one’s torn.
fishmel raced also, getting in the top twenty I think. Great job! It was a tough, fast group up front and a huge 52 rider field. We raced counter clockwise this week. I haven’t uploaded my Garmin yet, so no stats.
BTW, the Edge 305 flew off the bike. The guy behind me handed it to me and it seems to work perfectly. I imagine we were all going 23-25 mph so that thing can take a beating.
April 19th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
where are the photo’s? i must see the injury inflicted!!
April 23rd, 2006 at 1:12 pm
wow dude what a story. glad you are ok and all.