When Riding the Road...Don't Crash
Saturday, March 4th, at the first race in Boulder, I had my first crash on the road. I can now say that falling on the track is nothing compared to falling on the road. I still have some nice deep road rash on my right knee and hand after a week, and the pain is not getting any better. Basically, if I am awake and not moving, then I'm in pain, but thankfully I feel the best when I am on the bike.
So how does one get into this mess? Well the race was coming to a close on the last lap. I was in a group of about 10 off the front of the peloton of about 50. We were chasing down 4 guys ahead of us. I was feeling really good. I was really excited, knowing I was about to get a top 10 in a decent field of Pro/1/2's. Maybe just a little too excited.
Anyway, the group I was in had givin up on chasing down the break out front and now everyone was jokeying for position for the sprint that was less than 1k away. I was riding on the left side of the group, in bad position, trying to advance some places before the last turn on the course. I ended up riding off the rode into the ditch to avoid colliding with the guy on my right. At this point, I would have probalby been fine if I had slammed on my brakes and let the group past before trying to get back in the race. But I was so determined to keep my position and get a good result that I did not use my brakes and instead tried to manuver my way back onto the road. This is where the shit hit the fan, as the road had a nice covering of gravel and after successfully getting my front tire on the road, it lost traction and sent me to the ground. Unfortunately, I was not the only one in this crash as another rider ended up running into my shoulder (which was now on the ground) thus sending him flying. Luckily, I made it out with only a sprained CV joint in my shoulder and some damn good road rash on one leg. The other rider however was not so luckly and broke his elbow.
I still feels good to know that the hard training I put in in Jan and Feb has left me at the top of the fields in Colorado. I can only hope that as I put more speed work in as the track season approaches that this will give me a good chance to get my upgrade to Cat 1!
But for the moment I am taking it easy as I am under the weather with a chest cold. I hope it is gone by the weekend, because the CU Cycling team is hosting some good racing all weekend.
So how does one get into this mess? Well the race was coming to a close on the last lap. I was in a group of about 10 off the front of the peloton of about 50. We were chasing down 4 guys ahead of us. I was feeling really good. I was really excited, knowing I was about to get a top 10 in a decent field of Pro/1/2's. Maybe just a little too excited.
Anyway, the group I was in had givin up on chasing down the break out front and now everyone was jokeying for position for the sprint that was less than 1k away. I was riding on the left side of the group, in bad position, trying to advance some places before the last turn on the course. I ended up riding off the rode into the ditch to avoid colliding with the guy on my right. At this point, I would have probalby been fine if I had slammed on my brakes and let the group past before trying to get back in the race. But I was so determined to keep my position and get a good result that I did not use my brakes and instead tried to manuver my way back onto the road. This is where the shit hit the fan, as the road had a nice covering of gravel and after successfully getting my front tire on the road, it lost traction and sent me to the ground. Unfortunately, I was not the only one in this crash as another rider ended up running into my shoulder (which was now on the ground) thus sending him flying. Luckily, I made it out with only a sprained CV joint in my shoulder and some damn good road rash on one leg. The other rider however was not so luckly and broke his elbow.
I still feels good to know that the hard training I put in in Jan and Feb has left me at the top of the fields in Colorado. I can only hope that as I put more speed work in as the track season approaches that this will give me a good chance to get my upgrade to Cat 1!
But for the moment I am taking it easy as I am under the weather with a chest cold. I hope it is gone by the weekend, because the CU Cycling team is hosting some good racing all weekend.
