We had a very unfortunate casualty. It was so sad and I thought Chris was going to cry. We were heading from the event site back to town after pre-riding the course. When suddenly we heard a loud bang and Chris's Superfly was hanging off the car. It was mounted backwards on the roof rack and the back wheel did not get tied down. It flipped over completely on the skewer and hit the side of the vehicle. The impact crushed the down tube just above the bottom bracket. The bike is completely unridable.
A lost loved one...You know how people say that giving the shirt off your back is the nicest thing a person can do. Well, Brad surpassed that. He gave Chris his bike to race. That is giving--pure altruism. Brad was not going to race, but was going to ride while we raced. Talk about friendship.
Chris getting things ready...not able to smile quite yet.The race was okay overall. Karl ended up in fourth, Carson took ninth (I think), Chris took 13th (on Brad's 29 inch Hi-Fi) and I ended up in 5th.
Chris on the courseThe course was 13 miles of road to a climb that put us on a mesa. The mesa had single track which spit out on a dirt road back to the start finish. My group started out pretty quick. My plan was to stay with the group and hopes of getting some help by drafting. It did not work out so well though. I was with the group for the first minute when I went down. It was a curve to the left and I went down. I don't really know how, but it seems as though my front wheel fell into a rut and washed out. I jumped up made sure front wheel spun and jumped back on. Brad was right there watching it all. I tried to catch my group and caught up to a few off the back. When ever I would reel them in they would pull away. Most likely because I took each turn like a small child--I had to rhythm. About 15 minutes after the crash, I noticed my back hurt just on the left side. It hurt to climb; it hurt to stand up. I think it influenced how poorly I rode the first part of the race. After the climb to the top of the mesa, I felt as though I got some flow back. The second half of the race was actually fun. I liked the course. After the race I figured out why my back hurt so badly.
I crushed the canister in my back left pocket when I went down.
A closer look...At least it was better than Sea Otter last year.
6 comments:
Oh man....such a bummer about the bike. Makes me sick.
Sorry about the bike - that sucks.
Hope your back is OK. Do we call you Crusher now?
I can't believe Chris didn't cry. Hell, I started to cry when I saw that.
Just curious, what sort of things about the race made you miss the I-Cup?
Aaron: There was a dispute with the BLM late the evening before so day of they changed the Cat 3 and 2 course. (It seems like that should have been figured out before hand. Though I do understand the BLM is difficult.)Those poor lil' Cat 3's were racing for 2 plus hours which caused delays. The race organizers would not really comment on the delay so it was hard to know when and how to warm-up before our race started.
We asked the race organizer about the course the day before--being a 27 mile loop we were hesitant to pre-ride it in its entirety. He said it was epic. He had never ridden it on a bike just a motorcycle. He said he thought the fast guys would do it in 2:25 or so. Chris (who claimed to be not so fast that day) did it in 2 hours. I finished in 2:20. With only one water station and no hand ups it was difficult to gauge what fuel we needed to bring with us.
Value. The race was $55 plus an online registration fee or a $20-$30 on site registration fee plus a $5 event fee. Our race packet consisted of a number plate--no lil' samples from GU, PowerBar, or Cliff. I don't race for t-shirts or socks, but it kinda makes you feel as though they care.
I know the feeling of having a damaged bike. Tell Chris I send my condolences. If I were him I would be sick.
I bet you have a doozy of a bruise. That must have been some fall. Good job getting back into the race.
I crushed my carbon fiber Scott last year. I sent it to www.Calfee.com in Santa Cruz and they repaired it nicely. I was very impressed, especially since it was only a couple weeks before Leadville. Give them a call it cost me about $300.00.
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