Those That Have, And Those That Will

In the cycling world, there is a saying "there are those who have crashed and there are those who will." I now fall into the "those who have" category.

Saturday morning our several of our TNT teammates and I did the Red Poppy Ride in Georgetown. It's a great ride. I did it last year and we had beautiful weather. We weren't so lucky this year. Friday night some storms had blown through the area. It was overcast and muggy Saturday morning with a little drizzle every now and then. And the roads were wet. And the lovely spring wind we've had all year was present.

Several of us started off together, being careful on the turns. About mile 6 one of our teammates got a flat. Another teammate helped to fix it, but as he was putting the tire back on the bike the tube exploded. It sounded like a shot gun. So it was round two of fixing the flat. It finally got fixed and we were off again. By this point, MANY riders had passed us. We had some ground to make up and did pretty good for a while.

Just before the third rest stop, our second teammate got a flat. The third rest stop was only a few miles ahead and I had to go pee, so a few of us went ahead and then waited at the rest stop. As soon as everyone caught up and got what they needed, we headed out again.

And just past mile 30 (of what was supposed to be a 62 mile ride) either the crosswind caught me or my front tire blew (we aren't 100% sure what happened). It caused me to swerve into my teammate next to me (sorry Patrick). He tried to hold me up and I think I overcompensated the other way to keep from knocking him over and when I did, I lost control and down I went. It all happened so fast, but I knew I was going down.

My teammates were awesome though. There just happened to be a SAG vehicle right behind us with a first aid kit. My teammates went to work cleaning me up and making sure I was ok (and also checking the bike). My elbow got some pretty decent road rash and my shoulder was sore. I was done for the day. I got sagged ahead to the next aid station so an EMT could look at me and then I got sagged to the finish.

When the guy dropped me off at the finish my car was on the other side of the parking lot. I was thinking "I'll just roll my bike to the car with one hand". Umm, not when I had two flats. So a nice guy came to help and come to find out he and the friend who was with him had gone to the same high school I did and graduated a year ahead of my brother. Once they said their names I knew exactly who they were.

I was on my tri bike and for the most part it looks ok. The handle bars took the brunt of the crash, so they may need to be replaced. I'll have to take it in to the shop to have it looked at.

As for me, I wasn't really in too much pain, just sore. The shoulder hurt when I moved it, but it wasn't throbbing or anything so I decided to wait until today to go to the doctor (and avoid having to go to urgent care or the ER). I got in to see someone this morning and they did some strength tests, range-of-motion tests and some poking and proding to see what and where it hurt. And then he said he didn't think they needed to radiate me (his words for taking x-rays). He thinks it's just a shoulder sprain and I should be fine and he said the elbow doesn't look infected.

So for now, I'm on my road bike on the trainer. I'll have to go some time this week to get a new helmet just to be safe and to get some new tires for both the tri bike and the road bike. The road bike has a lot of miles on the tires, plus it's been on the trainer a lot so the back tire is pretty worn. I want good tires on the bike when I go to Tahoe.