This definitely isn't how I wanted to look after Jeff Cup. Sorry for the nudie magazine pic...These are actually the least of my concerns when it came to this crash. My head hit the pavement at over 30 mph. I instantly knew that my head had absorbed most of the force of the impact with the pavement.
I'd be lying if I said I was excited about my next race. My last 2 races it's been 2 crashes, both with the guy right in front of me crashing and me unable to avoid it. I'm definitely risk averse when it comes to cycling, so that what makes this so disappointing. This is CAT 5 racing, we're not going for a Gold medal.
I had reduced my expectations for Jeff Cup, but in the back of my head was hoping that I would have a decent result. I have been under the weather since Thursday night. The first lap was tough and wound up being the fastest. The downhills were a little crazy for me. I tended to just hang at the back going down them and losing a little ground which was easily made up almost by coasting up the following hill or giving a few quick strong kicks to get back up to the group. I think the group thinned over each lap, but I'm not sure how many of the 50 were left at the end, maybe half?
My goal was to not work until the end and just see how it went. Every single break came back with seemingly little work from the group. There was a brief chance about 2/3 of the way through the last lap to get into a little break. One guy got a gap and I quickly bridged up to him, but I just stayed on his wheel, I guess hesitating because in my mind we were just going to expend ourselves so we had nothing left for the final. In this case, it would probably have meant no crash for me...so I'll have to rethink my strategy in the future.
As far as the crash goes...I think I was in about 5th place about 50 meters from the line and 2 guys right in front of me went down hard and I had no choice but to go into them. I basically went flying forward off my bike and tucked and rolled, landing first on my head, then my upper right back, then my right hip. I wasn't going to win, but definitely would have been top 10. I think I went just a tad early and was slightly fading when the crash happened.
My Garmin computer's last speed reading was 31.2 mph, so that's the speed I think the crash happened at. I didn't lose consciousness, but I knew my head hit hard. For about the first 45 minutes after the crash I couldn't stand up without feeling dizzy and like I was going to vomit.
That feeling eventually subsided and the ER visit wound up being really quick. They felt there was no need for a head CT scan to look for swelling since my symptoms were all getting better. They did advise that any increase in headache or vomiting was a signal to go to the ER.
Here is the race file. A lot more climbing that I thought it was going to be. There were no long, hard climbs, but some steep kickers and some false flats. Wound up being about 2,200 ft climbed in 30 miles. My heartrate got up to the mid 180s on some of the hills of each of the laps then I think topped out at 188 in the final push to the line. There was a definite lull halfway through the last lap, with folks saving themselves for the final.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2840531
Here are the lap splits:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/2840531
Above is a pic on our way home from Jeff Cup. It wound up being a beautiful day, actually got a little sunburn. The storm clouds were in the sky on the way home though, making for some nice scenery.
After the crash I saw that my helmet had cracked. On closer inspection I saw that there were 2 big cracks and multiple small cracks. The helmet did it's job really well and couldn't be more thankful.
Above is a pic of the other major crack at the back of my helmet. I've had this same helmet since I bought my first road bike back in April of 2005. Time for a new one. I'm going to stick with Giro and hopefully go with the Ionos model. Thanks for protecting my noggin Giro!
The bike went flying during crash, tumbling over itself repeatedly. I really wasn't expecting it to be intact, but there actually aren't many visible signs of the crash. The tops of the shifter hoods, the bent right hood (pic above) and my saddle (pic below) got it the worst.
The unfortunate thing about carbon fiber is that you typically can't accurately determine the extent of damage and you typically find out when it actually breaks on you.
The Zipp wheels actually look okay too.
I'll go over the entire frame and Zipp wheels with a little more detail, basically an inch-by-inch inspection to look for anything suspicious. Since the saddle got it so bad I'll have to check out the seat-post (I'm glad it's aluminum). At a minimum I'm going to replace the handlebars with an aluminum pair. I would imagine the ones I have on there now (Specialized carbon S-Works) got a good beating in the crash. Besides, at 250 grams, there won't be any weight penalty from switching to aluminum which generally weigh in at 250-260 grams.
I might try to bend the metal of my saddle back into place, but not sure how that will effect the carbon fiber shell. My brother Jon is going to put my Specialized Toupe in the mail today or tomorrow, so that'll be my new seat. I let him borrow it, but he wound up never needing it.
So, next weekend there is the Walkersville road race on Saturday and the Tyson's Corner crit on Sunday. The Walkersville race is a combined 4/5 .
JW mentioned that I need to upgrade as soon as I get the 10 mass starts to avoid the craziness and inexperience of CAT 5 racing. I definitely agree, but a recent recap of the CAT 4 Jeff Cup race from a teammate had this closing thought:
"Please everyone continue to practice cornering and riding in a
straight line. Terrifying might begin to describe the current general
standard of Cat 4 bike handling."
I might try the Dave Zabriskie route. He often says that the reason he became a good Time Trialist is the fact that he never wanted to get caught up in the crazy finishes, so he would TT away from the field at the end of the race, so he wouldn't have to worry about anyone else.
I noticed in our race that there were a few guys to watch out for with respect to their bike handling skills (I don't think they were involved in the end crash that took me out). On the climbs this one guy would get out of the saddle and then just randomly swing about 4-5 feet in one direction without checking over his shoulder. I think that's idiotic. Others would kind of wildly throw their bikes around when out of the saddle. It might "feel" cool to them, but it's not.
Bottom line is that I'm really thankful that this crash didn't leave things worse. Right now my head feels decent and the parts that are sore are: my jaw (mainly the right side), my right hip, my right elbow, my neck (the muscles), and my right palm. I have a small cut on my left eyebrow where my sunglasses dug into my head.
For me, this sort of thing makes me realize how lucky I am to be healthy and to have a beautiful and loving wife who would do anything for me. She was such a trooper through all of this and I just feel so bad that once she saw the crash and didn't see me come through the finish line, I knew she had this horrible pit in her stomach.
This has also given me a view into why some people probably switch from road racing to triathlons. I don't want to sound like a wimp, but I'm not too keen on having my brain bounce around inside my skull again, especially when it's not from something dumb I've done.
As far as the crash goes...I think I was in about 5th place about 50 meters from the line and 2 guys right in front of me went down hard and I had no choice but to go into them. I basically went flying forward off my bike and tucked and rolled, landing first on my head, then my upper right back, then my right hip. I wasn't going to win, but definitely would have been top 10. I think I went just a tad early and was slightly fading when the crash happened.
My Garmin computer's last speed reading was 31.2 mph, so that's the speed I think the crash happened at. I didn't lose consciousness, but I knew my head hit hard. For about the first 45 minutes after the crash I couldn't stand up without feeling dizzy and like I was going to vomit.
That feeling eventually subsided and the ER visit wound up being really quick. They felt there was no need for a head CT scan to look for swelling since my symptoms were all getting better. They did advise that any increase in headache or vomiting was a signal to go to the ER.
Here is the race file. A lot more climbing that I thought it was going to be. There were no long, hard climbs, but some steep kickers and some false flats. Wound up being about 2,200 ft climbed in 30 miles. My heartrate got up to the mid 180s on some of the hills of each of the laps then I think topped out at 188 in the final push to the line. There was a definite lull halfway through the last lap, with folks saving themselves for the final.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2840531
Here are the lap splits:
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/2840531
Above is a pic on our way home from Jeff Cup. It wound up being a beautiful day, actually got a little sunburn. The storm clouds were in the sky on the way home though, making for some nice scenery.
After the crash I saw that my helmet had cracked. On closer inspection I saw that there were 2 big cracks and multiple small cracks. The helmet did it's job really well and couldn't be more thankful.
Above is a pic of the other major crack at the back of my helmet. I've had this same helmet since I bought my first road bike back in April of 2005. Time for a new one. I'm going to stick with Giro and hopefully go with the Ionos model. Thanks for protecting my noggin Giro!
The bike went flying during crash, tumbling over itself repeatedly. I really wasn't expecting it to be intact, but there actually aren't many visible signs of the crash. The tops of the shifter hoods, the bent right hood (pic above) and my saddle (pic below) got it the worst.
The unfortunate thing about carbon fiber is that you typically can't accurately determine the extent of damage and you typically find out when it actually breaks on you.
The Zipp wheels actually look okay too.
I'll go over the entire frame and Zipp wheels with a little more detail, basically an inch-by-inch inspection to look for anything suspicious. Since the saddle got it so bad I'll have to check out the seat-post (I'm glad it's aluminum). At a minimum I'm going to replace the handlebars with an aluminum pair. I would imagine the ones I have on there now (Specialized carbon S-Works) got a good beating in the crash. Besides, at 250 grams, there won't be any weight penalty from switching to aluminum which generally weigh in at 250-260 grams.
I might try to bend the metal of my saddle back into place, but not sure how that will effect the carbon fiber shell. My brother Jon is going to put my Specialized Toupe in the mail today or tomorrow, so that'll be my new seat. I let him borrow it, but he wound up never needing it.
So, next weekend there is the Walkersville road race on Saturday and the Tyson's Corner crit on Sunday. The Walkersville race is a combined 4/5 .JW mentioned that I need to upgrade as soon as I get the 10 mass starts to avoid the craziness and inexperience of CAT 5 racing. I definitely agree, but a recent recap of the CAT 4 Jeff Cup race from a teammate had this closing thought:
"Please everyone continue to practice cornering and riding in a
straight line. Terrifying might begin to describe the current general
standard of Cat 4 bike handling."
I might try the Dave Zabriskie route. He often says that the reason he became a good Time Trialist is the fact that he never wanted to get caught up in the crazy finishes, so he would TT away from the field at the end of the race, so he wouldn't have to worry about anyone else.
I noticed in our race that there were a few guys to watch out for with respect to their bike handling skills (I don't think they were involved in the end crash that took me out). On the climbs this one guy would get out of the saddle and then just randomly swing about 4-5 feet in one direction without checking over his shoulder. I think that's idiotic. Others would kind of wildly throw their bikes around when out of the saddle. It might "feel" cool to them, but it's not.
Bottom line is that I'm really thankful that this crash didn't leave things worse. Right now my head feels decent and the parts that are sore are: my jaw (mainly the right side), my right hip, my right elbow, my neck (the muscles), and my right palm. I have a small cut on my left eyebrow where my sunglasses dug into my head.
For me, this sort of thing makes me realize how lucky I am to be healthy and to have a beautiful and loving wife who would do anything for me. She was such a trooper through all of this and I just feel so bad that once she saw the crash and didn't see me come through the finish line, I knew she had this horrible pit in her stomach.
This has also given me a view into why some people probably switch from road racing to triathlons. I don't want to sound like a wimp, but I'm not too keen on having my brain bounce around inside my skull again, especially when it's not from something dumb I've done.
11 comments:
Good to hear your OK chris. Everyone has a bad crash once a year, at least you got yours out of the way early and your bike seems to have made it through.
I agree with wickliff. Your bad crash is out of the way. YOu are good for a year. Go ride your bike and keep racing. Life is too short to only play golf!
Hey man - glad to see you were already back to life at the meeting last night.
I had a rough season last year that can top your mayhem so far in the crash 5s... just remember to get back on the bike, and cat up as soon as possible. it does get better, no matter what DaveK says.
Just... marginally better.
Here's a glimpse of my string of bad luck last season:
http://sigberto.blogspot.com/2008/10/playing-it-smart-conquering-fear-in.html
Do a really good job checking your bike over for cracks. I crashed early last year, had my shop check the bike over, and then finding a small crack in the backside of the front fork.
You're really lucky you didn't have more head trauma.
BTW: Cat 4 races aren't any safer. You'll find the speeds are faster and just as squirrely as a Cat5 race.
Hey - I resemble that remark! Glad you got off with relatively light damage. If your bars got tweaked, check your steerer tube on your fork. - DK
Glad you're okay and were at the meeting last night. You can do down anywhere, I got hit last year while having the right of way thru the crosswalk (an SUV driver never bothered to look). Frustrating, but you get thru it. Hope the bike turns out okie, if not, keep in mind those team frames we get a good deal on...
Wick, thanks man, appreciate it. Amy Jones has a good photo of you at the start of Jeff Cup. JW, that's the plan. Sigberto, good to be back and thanks for the link to your post, I enjoyed it. RayMan, will do, going over every last inch tonight looking for any little thing at all and then putting on the indoor trainer for starters. I think I saw your blog under Kyle Jones' blog roll.
DK and Ron, thanks. Sorry, you must have commented while I was typing and left my desk for a bit in the middle. Good idea on the steerer tube. Good seeing you guys at the meeting.
Chris,
The cat 4 racing has really smoothed out since rayman left. The cat 3's have to deal with him now.
Are you doing walkersville still. First lap always has a crash of some sort because the shoulder drops out after a right hand turn. Happened last two years. So ride near the center line. Guys are forever trying to move up so it can be a challenge right there.
Thanks Kyle. I remember now a teammate mentioning the disappearing shoulder issue at Walkersville, but I honestly had forgetten. Now I won't. I'm still doing Walkersville.
Did a very detailed inspection of my bike and wheels and didn't really see any scratches besides one spot that was only paint deep. Steerer tube looks good too, but I'm going to have the shop look it all over again.
Do you know of any videos or pics of the CAT 5 finish, preferably with me eating it? From what I've seen, there are none.
How is your teammate doing? I think he was one of the guys that went down in front of me and I ran over him.
See you at Walkersville.
Glad you are ok.
I was in the race with you. I remember your bright bar tape. When I saw you pull up to the front during the last bit of the last lap I had a feeling you were getting prepped for the sprint.
I cramped on sprint and saw the wreck from 20 feet back. See you at Tyson's ...if I get off the wait list.
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