A Little Friendly Competition Won't Hurt Anyone, Will It?

Ragla and I are always trying to outdo one another: whose house is messier, whose kids are naughter, whose bike is dirtier. Unfortunatly, we've taken the competition to a new level: whose bike wreck is more spectacular.

Only last month did the both of us go down doing goofball moves.

Ragla went down again yesterday morning on a group bike ride. She hit her aerobars so hard with her chest that it bent the bars. She now has a bruised sternum and some road rash.

Not to be outdone, I decided to race the UVU Crit last night. No better place to wreck spectacularly than at a tight-cornered race with dozens of spectators watching, right?

I was doing pretty well racing, if I do say so myself. I had gotten to the start line just as Holly was giving the pre-race instructions. There were already about 30 guys lined up, so I took my place at the back, not up front where I wanted to be. At least when I'm up front they all have to pass me before I get dropped.

I was dropped in no time. My plan had been to recover once I was dropped and wait for the pack to come around so I could try to get back in with the group. But, as we came around for the second and third laps, I was still ahead of a few guys, so I kept up the effort. I was feeling really good, so I worked at catching and passing a couple more guys ahead of me.

Then it happened. As I was coming into the tightest turn, one of the faster groups of guys was coming up behind me. I didn't want to go through the turn with them, so I picked up my speed a bit. I'm guessing I must have been going over 25 mph. Speed + hairpin turn = not a very good combination.

The red curb was coming at me a little too fast. I feathered the brakes. "Don't hit the curb! Don't HIT THE CURB!" Then I did what I know better than to do: I locked up the brakes. Endo.

The first thing to hit the pavement was my helmet. Then my face.

I was going to pass out. I laid my head down on the ground in preparation for all to go black. But it didn't.

I couldn't breathe. I didn't think I could. But I was. Really fast.

I looked at the ground. A puddle of blood had formed. Where was that coming from? Everything hurt, so it could have been coming from anywhere.

The EMT rushed over and started asking me the have-you-been-knocked-silly questions: do your know you name? What day is it? Where are you?





A nice-sized group of spectators formed. A lot of kids staring at me. I was feeling pretty jovial and tried my best to keep things lighthearted as I told them not to look at my blood and guts. But I could see the concern on all their faces. Either I wasn't as funny as I was trying to be, or I was looking worse than I felt.

The EMTs were having a hard time getting the bleeding to stop on my chin. I finally asked if I could hold the compression gauze on because the lady doing it was getting a little too wiggly for my chin to handle. They told me that I was going to need stitches. Cool. I've never had stitches. They finished wrapping me up, loaded me into a truck, and sent me on my way to the ER.

The ER doctors quickly unwrapped everything, checked me out, gave me drugs, and sent me to get CAT scanned and x-rayed. They were worried that I had broken bones in my face, and they wouldn't stitch me up until they determined that I wouldn't need surgery. The CAT scan machine was a trip. I'm not sure it's a good idea to drug people before sending them into the giant donut machine. I had a really hard time not giggling the whole time I was getting scanned. But by the time I was moved to the x-ray lab, I was about to drop dead asleep. Then it was time to wait for results. An hour later they told me that everything looked good, and they proceeded to stitch up my chin. Four stitches, in case you're wondering.

Hoping to heal fast so I can get back on my bike! Remember to ALWAYS WEAR YOUR HELMET!

PS - There was a professional photographer there taking pictures. He promised me he'd send me some photos, but I haven't seen them yet. Plus, I hear that the wreck was caught on video from a distance. I havent' seen it yet, but will try to post it when I get a copy.