TAN 114... I can't sTANd kids... (Page 62)

Whoa...blast from the past! HI TY!!

TOPPAGE!!!

Life is fricken fabulous! I have 2 wonderful girls and a fantastic fiance. Getting married May of 2011. How are you, the wifey and the little ones?

I posted this in the "Crit:Peak into the Pain" thread I started in the Peleton Forum.  I wanted to throw it out here too for all my TAN peeps.

Hi y'all.  Just another post on the "Pain" part of crits, and this one isn't just for the newbies, but for the experienced ones as well.  Wrecks.  They happen.

Went to the normal Tuesday night series last night.  Recap - 1k rectangle course.  Normally 15-30 laps.  Last night started off with a 15 lap race, I used it for a warm up because I literally got on the bike as they started.  Did what I wanted to do which was just hold on for the first 5-6 laps, get the HR up and going and then just coast the rest of that race.

Then we come to the second race.  30 laps.  This was going to be a long one.  My friend arrived and he has been doing them for quite a while.  He is a big dude.  About 6'7" and easy 240-250.  Not fat, just big.  And so we are off.  We get into a good pace line and are holding a decent 23-24 mph per lap average.  And at lap 12-13 (I'm not exactly certain when) it all started to go bad.

I'm sitting second wheel, coming around the Northeast corner getting ready to take over the lead cause it was my turn when an attack came from the back.  I look up and see the back of our group that we had already dropped and we were coming down on them quickly.  Jay (my friend) and I pop out of the saddle to stay with the group.  We catch the lapped group and one guy goes down on the Southeast corner from that group on his own (nobody including him knows exactly what happened) so then the group splits around him and I get caught out, dropped.  Crud.  So I try to get the slower group to hop on my wheel to see if we can catch up with the 7-8 guys that are starting to pull away. 

We come back around again and on the same corner that the lone guy went down, when I'm going by, I see Jay on the side, already standing up, but there is a guy on the ground, no moving.  This can't be good.  One more lap down and they neutralize the field and pull us all to a stop to help those guys out.  I bike back and Jay is fine.  Small scratches on his right elbow and hip.  He basically took a turn too aggressively and pedaled into it, his pedal hit the ground and he was gone.  The guy sitting second wheel (which was me for most of the race up to the wreck the previous lap and kept me up most of last night) went azz over tea kettle and the first thing to hit was his mellon.

By the time I got to the scene, this guy was up, but kind of had a dazed look to him.  We walked him back to the starting line.  Mark, my coach, is also a PT.  He was in the race.  He pulled out early cause he had to go see another client.  I hollered for him to come over and check this guy out.  1) His helmet was cracked. Not smashed, cracked, clear through.  2) He had a pretty good bump and scratch on the front left part of his head.  3) As Mark started to check him out, he was complaining of things being fuzzy in his vision our of his left eye.  With that, we all agreed for him that someone was going to take him to the hospital. 

I haven't heard yet how the guy is.  Probably a concussion and they will hold him for observation.  Scary stuff.

Jay is really beating himself up about this.  He said that he has been doing it at this place for almost 4 years with no accident.  Beth and I kept reminding him that even pro's have accidents. 

This is told NOT to scare people away from doing these races.  It is done to remind ALL who ride that wrecks happen.  And if you are going to do these types of races, you dramatically increase the probability of being involved in one.  That being said, they are STILL a great experience.

Keep the rubber die down folks.