This was my second attempt at the course, with better wind conditions and slightly cooler temperatures I was hoping to put in a good effort and better my time from the previous week.
Warm up went well enough, but I was still having difficulty getting my HR up with a max HR of 151 bpm during warm up on the trainer. My legs felt OK, a little tired, but OK ... however, my HR just seems to be struggling to get up. I'm reading this as a sign of my body being tired and needing a bread (which as it turns out will happen ... more later).
Once on course I went out a little slower due to the technical nature of the first 3 miles. I kept the bike under control and looking at my STRAVA comparison from last week, I was 30 seconds slower over the first 3 miles.
Making the turn, I was a little slower in the crosswind sections, but faster in the headwind section (around 30 seconds faster). With around 3 miles to go I was ahead of my previous weeks time by a little over 30 seconds ... but lost all of that over the final 3 miles, turning a time that was 2 seconds slower than last week.
My legs are dead at this point and just need a break.
So with that said ... this is how they will end up getting a break.
As I crossed the finish line, I was coasting down on the long straight. I junior racer had finished about 15 seconds in front of me and had slowed way down, as I came up on him he suddenly turned to the left, without looking, right in front of me. I was doing 22-23 mph at the time and grabbed a handful of brake to avoid hitting him.
I locked up the front wheel and endoed on the course. Witnesses said the bike flew 5-6 feet in the air, I however went straight for the ground, helmet hitting first, then shoulder, then back and I came to an instant stop.
I laid on the road in a very extreme amount of pain, which slowly subsided enough to get up and see my bars and saddle pointing decidedly downward. I gave a brief inspection of the bike and all looked "OK" but I wasn't sure if I had cracked any part of the carbon ... so a trip to the bike shop was in order.
It appears the bottom bolt of the stem may be pulling out and a picture was sent to Argon to get their point of view ... so the integrated fork "May" need to be replaced ... however, they didn't see any other damage that was structural, just a little cosmetic damage around the headtube.
As far as my body ... My shoulder and back have a lot of road rash and hurt a lot, but I can breathe OK now. I have a "Grill" bruise on my face from the Styrofoam as my head hit the ground (but the helmet did it's job) and my left thumb is in a large amount of pain and is swelling/bruising a lot. I'm wearing a brace on my left hand that's helping a lot and taking ibuprophen at this time for pain management which is helping.
I'm guessing a couple days off the bike and I should be OK ... but it's not something I want to repeat again.
I'll see where I'm at and hope to hear back from Argon before deciding to race next weekend ... I might take the weekend off since the ITT championships are two weeks away and I want to be healthy for that race ... even if I may lose a little fitness over the next couple days ... though the rest will probably help me get some strength back on the bike, if not make me a little heavier.
Overall ... a good race with a painful ending. I still love the course and organization of the race ... the promoter gave me a call today to check up on me, which was pretty cool.
Now to heal up and get back on the bike.
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