Afternoon race, so I spent a leisurely morning drinking coffee and talking with Bill on his porch. Suddenly it was getting late and I needed to get myself together and go. Only 40 minutes driving to the park, and I thought with the late start, I would have plenty of time, but a bit of traffic, long line at registration, and I just had time to pin on numbers and run up to staging. No warm up, but that was fine. Course was going to be fast and flat. No rain for months, so dry as well
Cat4s took off first, with a few minutes before my race, the 35+ cat 4s. About 2 minutes after the initial group left, two racers tore off down the starting stretch in pursuit, having missed the start.
Another couple of minutes and we were off. I was staged toward the back of the group. Long starting straight with a few sweeping curves gave us a chance to get stretched out. I was riding really well for the first 4 laps. Moving up in the field, passing quite a few riders. I was just off the back of the main part of the field, ahead of nearly half of the field, or so it seemed. Really hard to tell where you are in the race, but I passed 20-30 riders who had started ahead of me, and was still moving up. Looking for a solid placing at this one.
Then BANG. Front wheel washed out on a sandy patch in a corner just ahead of the barriers and the beer garden. I went down hard on my shoulder, then ducked under the tape to catch my breath. I was dazed, and thought I had a real injury. One of the spectators came up to me to check me out. Tapped on my collarbone, that was ok. I could lift my arm part way. OK, no dislocation. But I was sore as hell. My teammate Dave hopped over from the beer garden and offered me a drink of water. I was still a bit out of it, but trying to get myself together. I thought my race was over, but I talked to him for a minute, had a bit more water then jumped on the bike and said "I'm going to finish this thing". My chain was twisted up, so I had to immediately stop, invert the bike and re-route the chain, then I was off. Rode the last lap at sub tempo, getting passed by several riders who were now 3 laps up on me. But crossed the finish and felt pretty good, happy to have finished the race and not DNF.
Rolled over to the beer garden, saw Dave and Hank and grabbed a beer. Good to see Hank. We chatted about rowing for a bit. He's a solid masters rower, in a program at Pocock. I'm a fledgling novice rower, having spent more time on the bike than on the water this year.
Rolled over to the team tent, saw Sam, John, Matthew, Davo, Tim, and Brad among some more of the 2020 guys. Bill came over too. Hung around with those guys as the got ready or got cleaned up after their races. Spent a bit of time with Brad's kid Connor as Brad was getting ready for and then racing in the 1/2s. He had a solid race, but I could not stick around to watch all of it as I had dinner plans with friends.
Finished in the 90s, just ahead of the DNFs. Down 3 laps. I was really happy with how I had been racing up until my wipe out. Super fast course, and I was ripping it up. It happens. Looking forward to the next one.
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