I was only back to the race for a short while before I got pulled and I tried to use the "if the glove don't fit you must acquit" line but it just didn't' work. Race was over. The King is dead. Not a trade off.
Now the truth. My race did not go fully as planned, did all the normal things I do before the race. It was warm and a nice dense air. As much as many don't like it I love the heat, the rain was holding off nicely, it was turning into a good day for a race. Staged up on the front like normal, had already done the round of hi's and knew who was there and who the battles would be with. Go!!! It took all of 5 minutes in when Logan, Box and myself grouped together with a 4th rider tucked in with us. There were a few guys that blasted off the front, no worries.
First lap no real excitement, 2nd lap there was a little split and I was doing my own thing. 3rd lap came through the solo pit and saw Box chilling in a chair. Hmmm did we go to hard off the start? I don't think so but regardless I kept my pace. I kinda have that very controlled pace and always think of the later part of the race. This let Logan get a bit of a gap on me and also had this new mystery rider who actually wasn't a mystery get between us. Trevor is the rider from Brant Cycle that I rode with at the Ganaraska Marathon. I was not concerned, it was early.
Started lapping riders and this included riders that I really was not expecting to be catching at this point of the race. I'd wondered if we did start to hard again but I knew it wasn't the case. There is more to this thought of the pace, patience's!!! Starting on my 7th lap I was just riding along, as the lap came closer to the end I had my every couple year reminder crash. I seem to get one of these about every 3 years. As I was rolling the last downhill section heading towards the road crossing things went very very bad quickly. So my weakness has always been climbing, my strength it technical descending, today for 2 seconds I had neither.
I'm still not exactly sure what happened, did I hit a root? catch a bar? random bear attack? I some how ended up doing a front flip over my bars with a 180 degree twist landing on my back feet straight up in the air between two huge logs. Instant panic, I couldn't move because of fear of cramping, a second later I realized that I can feel blood coming from the left side of my face. let's just say that if I was to time a fall perfect this was it, 6 to 7 guys that all knew me saw me go over and raced to get me out, call the marshall's, and help me to the road crossing. Thank you so much guys!!!
At the marshall station I was already asking if I had an additional hole in my nose, there was blood everywhere. The blood covered gloves were not from killing Elvis, honest. Off to first aid by way of the the atv. Clean up, check up, nice new 5mm wide puncture on the left side of my nose. Does a nose piercing suit me???
Timing was perfect in first aid as Glenn's (event organizer) wife came into First Aid and just happens to be a local doctor checked me out, made a call to a hospital, gave me the good news that i didn't have to waste many hours of my life sitting in Emergency Room to get stitches. Regardless I'd already been informed earlier that my race was over.
Some additional war wounds, as I said I don't know how or what it was that caused it but I'm a little bit sore this morning. My neck is probably the worst because I came down backwards, the helmet doesn't appear to be cracked. Yes kids wear your helmet, they do work!!! Spent the rest of the day chilling around some close friends trying to get my head back in check. I was frustrated, now the funny thing was it wasn't fully about the crash. Yes that crash did scare the shit out of me, it could have gone very badly, it won't stop me from still descending fast and off my brakes.
I woke up in the morning and knew things were a little off, during an easy warm up there was something not fully right, each lap that sense of offness continued to get a little more intense. Legs felt tight, right side had a slight twitch to it, I tried to control things even on the first lap because I know that it sometimes takes an hour for my legs to come around but that wasn't happening today. I was starting to battle a little bit of cramping very early in the race, interestingly enough, I don't cramp. Let me rephrase that, it's been many many years since I've had a bad cramp during a race and that was caused by bad nutrition. I was in 3rd and I'd already started to consider pulling the plug early in the race or it was to just shut things down and ride with people as a social training. The crash was just Karma telling me to get off the bike?? Maybe.
Congrats to Logan and Trevor for a great race. Nice to add another threat into the mix. Today will be a pretty chill day. The road bike and the rail trail with very low wattage numbers will be the thought of the day. Followed closely with some chill time in the sun. Luckily I will be seeing Dr. Bill tomorrow to get the neck checked out.
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