All in all, today was a great day but wasn't without problem. Mike and I lined up in the starting area around 5:15 am. The race started promptly at 6:30. Roughly 25 miles into the race, I was no more than 30 to 50 riders back in the lead peleton. This was my first time being in the lead pack and it was exhilarating. Riding at 30+ mph really isn't as hard as you might think when your riding as a group. Of course, you have to be physically capable in the first place. I was a bit out of place up there because I wasn't part of a team. So many riders at least had 1 -5 other people they were there with. All of a sudden, we're taking a sharp right turn, everybody yelling reminders from behind to the riders in front to mind their lines. I was minding mine perfectly well when all of a sudden someone from behind me makes a very aggressive break while in the turn. Momentum forces him towards me. His rear skewer nailed my front tire and most of us know how tire on tire contact ends up...the guy in back loses. I went down pretty hard as did 2-3 people immediately behind me...possibly more. I never though my body could curl up in a ball as fast as it did once I hit the pavement. The thought of 100 riders behind you all trying to avoid the accident while shoulder to shoulder with the guy next to them is just painful to think about.
I suffered a nice hematoma (sp?) on my right hip, which will undoubtedly match the scar on my left. My leg and arm got some road rash too but nothing really bad at all and I didn't realize it until I hopped in the shower, I have 3 launching abrasions on my left butt cheek from people going over me. So inevitably, that killed the joy I was having. I got up and pulled the bike off to the side of the road. The motorcycle cop kept traffic stopped until I could do so safely and began assessing the damage to my bike.
Both shift/brake levers were bent inward, the chain was derailed, and as I later found out the shifting was out of tune because the derailler hanger was bent. I lost 2 lower gears when I was in either chain ring. I was very lucky when I was shifted into what low gears I had, I didn't pull every spoke out of the rear wheel. Not having those gears made the moderate climbing to follow excruciatingly difficult.
I was able to fix the bike up well enough to ride it safely and continue on. While I was stopped with the bike, the second group passed me. By the time I was on the bike again I felt awful. All of my momentum (obviously physically) was gone but mentally I was pretty gutted too. I really had a shot finishing with these guys...or at least the ones that dropped off later and maintained a pace between the first and second groups. So I spent 5 minutes trying to pull myself back to the rear of the second group and finally succeeded but to my demise, I could only keep with them for a little while. The effort to pull myself back left me too taxed. The hill climbing only exacerbated the toll my legs were taking without the gears I wanted...I needed!
Alex passed me at some point and finished 10 minutes ahead of me. Mike finished about 14 minutes or so behind me, I think. Mike regretfully tried keeping up with the lead pack (the one I was doing well in) and paid for it when his IT band in his knee acted up and punished him for most of the race for such an early effort. That forced him to abandon the lead pack and seek a pace that was more suited to his ability...or one he could at least ride with comfortably (if that was even an option with his knee).
So it's a bummer that such an idiot racer ruined the day for a few while he continued to finish well I'm sure. But hey, in the end I had fun and set out to finish where I knew I would be able to finish anyway. Overall in the 72 mile category (it was supposed to be 74 miles but they cut out 2 miles from the course), I finished 313 out of 849. Oh how I wonder what it could have been...
My ride data follows...
The web url for the results is here.
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