Thursday, June 04, 2009

Down and out

First crit, first crash and I almost cut my finger off (see Doug's post for pics). The new Ogden cash crit layout is a bit sketchy with the third turn at about 15 degrees past 90 (the corner I went down in), and they cut the lap distance down to .8 of a mile per lap.

Let me now back track and start from the start.
For the first couple of laps I was just kick'n around the middle to back half of the pack (getting the legs warmed up), but this girl (who almost took Doug out in the C flight, See Dougs post for more detail) was all over and was causing gaps at every turn (she couldn't hang with the C group, what the ---- is she doing trying to ride with the B's). At this point I went closer to the front and hung out. At the first prim I didn't go for it (I always try for the second one) because I hadn't pulled and I thought it would be a bit crazy being the first one of the year.
After the prim sprint about ten of us kept the tempo going for a lap or so, but with no organization and nobody really wanting to pull into the wind we didn't stay away and that is when the problems came. The group would go from about 28 down to 22 and then back up. I didn't sprint once (went down going into the last corner before the second prim sprint) and my max speed was 31 and the group average (for the 22 min I stayed upright) was 24. A real yo-yo group and that wasn't even in the turns.
So going into the last turn I'm about 4th wheel right next to the guy who just missed out on the first prim when the winner of the first prim shoots up next to me from the sand bag in the back only to clip the guys wheel right in front of me (he had no angle and over shot the turn) as we exit the last turn. I start to see his front wheel wobble and at first I think he might ride out of it, but then slam he goes down right in front of me. I try to wheelie over the back end of his bike in an effort not to go down or endo, but something went wrong and I flew over the bike hit the ground on my left side. As I'm flying/slide across the ground I feel my left ring finger bend back and I thought it would break (funny what your body feels and is thinking of during a crash). Little did I realize until later that my finger somehow got jammed into my front wheel. I do know that it stopped my wheel from spinning because I felt it hit the fork like when a kid jams a stick in the spokes.
So most of my finger nail is cut off (see Doug's pics), most of the skin from the first knuckle down is also gone, a few cuts on my elbow, shoulder, quad, hip, bruised heal and I jammed my pinkie good. Luckily no broken bones and Doug was right there to make sure the BIKE WAS OKAY!! Which was good. (only came out with a flat front tire and a few small scratches.) As the night carries on my hip is stiffening up and my heal is making it hard to walk. Other than that things are great as long as I don't hit my finger (Mindys typing for me).
Back to the crash. After walking around in pain for a second my first thought was if the bike was okay. Once that was confirmed I thought about jumping back in the crit, but my finger was bleeding to bad and hurting. And then the adrenaline wore off and I knew I was done. I guess I'll find out how bad it really was after a nights sleep.

1 comment:

Bubba said...

Been there, done that, no fun. How was the shower? That killed after the crash. Hope you recover soon enough to come out here this summer.