I wasn't feeling good the first few laps at all, the surges were long and hard and taking their toll on the lungs fast. I was taking the inside lines each lap. I decided to move over to the outside and within a lap started feeling better so I decided to stay to the outside. Felt much much better, legs and lungs started feeling good again quickly! Fast forward to the 2 to go lap....
My (and Q's) "Monster" of the Midway came in NASCAR form as "The Big One!" Its not a matter of IF it will come but WHEN it will come and WHERE you will be positioned when IT comes. And on the back stretch it came, the "Monster" the "Big One". I thought I was through it in the far right gutter and then BLAM the dude in front of gets slid into then he goes down right in front of me and I follow suite. No place to run and no time to bunny hop the curb, after all, I thought I was past it. I was the last guy to hit the deck. I knew it too because I was the furthest up the road, all the other 10-12+ guys down were behind me strewn out over a 20 yard spread in echelon across the road. I hopped up, I was mostly ok, spun the rear wheel, it was fine, got on the bike because what was left of the field was just about 50m up the road. I clipped in and gave it a crank and the rear wheel just fishtailed out on me, FLAT. Day was done. I immediately got myself and my bike off the course and went to see if anyone needed help. This race in the 4's is simply the Talledega of Chicago bike racing. What's upsetting is that I was feeling great when I hit the deck, the surges were taking nothing out of me and were almost effortless, ready to just absolutely drill it the last lap in which we were coming around to get the bell for. I was positioned about 15th wheel (give or take a few) and Q was a couple wheels in front of me to my left. So much for the staying out of trouble at the front!! I guess it was my turn, I had that 6th sense creeping in, you know it, that crash feeling, I had avoided all of them for some time now. Guess it was my turn to go down. A little bit of road rash on the left hip, that's about it to the body. A little sore today, it'll be fine, ready to race again!!
Peloton Star has a short summary:
"Seventy two (72) riders lined up for the Cat. 4 event. Mind you that this race did not draw a lot of racers from surrounding areas, this is mostly a city event. The popularity of this sport is so tremendous in this city that they even had 71 rider Cat. 4/5 race after this, followed by a 50 rider Cat. 5 race! Anyway, this is a tough course to escape on so it was fully expected that this would come down to a field sprint, which it did. I suppose, fully expected of this category would be that they would have the biggest crash of the day which they did as well. With just two laps to go, a loud noise could be heard from the back straight as a large number of riders went down hard. It was hard to tell just how many were involved, but only half the field ultimately came around to take the bell for the final lap."
I'll spare the team the skin shot! Anyone know when Carlos comes back?? I need him to teach me how to patch bibs!!
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