Yeah, its happened again (actually 3 times already this year). Cycling is an absurdly expensive sport when you look at equipment costs combined with replacement costs of nutrition, tires, and clothing. All stuff that wears out over time but when you’re riding thousands of miles its just part of the game. Ok, so you factor in those costs as part of cycling but nothings worse then replacing stuff unexpectedly.
Well, about 3 months ago I experienced the crash that kept on giving. To save myself some time I’m going to quote an email that I sent my good friend Mark (dude, if you’re reading this I’m sorry but I don’t feel like re-writing my story).
One:
“Training the past few months has been pretty good a few hiccups here and there with my pulled tibilas anterior and well, I did crash about a month a go ha, that’s a good story. Uhh, so I was out on a training ride finishing my 3rd hour and going onto 4 when I was taking it pretty easy and just relaxing with my hands resting gently on the bars coming down some rough pavement near my house. Basically I hit a good-sized bump that popped my hands up off the bar (mid turn…not good!) I grabbed the bars but the road was turning the other direction and as I began to regain control I went off the shoulder and hit a big ditch which threw me and my bike back up on the road (I would learn later when I went through my SRM file that I was going 29.7mph, oops). I ruined my brand new 09 kit (only used 3 times), My front Shimano carbon clincher wheel (replacement cost $325 which I haven’t ordered yet), cracked my helmet, broke the buckles off both my shoes, scratched the hell out of my Ipod (which still works!), and ruined my front tire. This sport is way to fucking expensive. Luckily I was fine just some good road rash and probably like 30 cacti spines in my legs. I hit hard but due to the rough pavement I didn’t slide much so I’ve had worse road rash.
But wait, it gets better! So after crashing I checked myself out and since I was only 20 minutes from the house I figured ‘what the hell I’ll just ride back’ even though both my hands were bleeding (as luck would have it I took my gloves off like ten minutes earlier) and my helmet was broken but I was still in one piece. So I picked my ass up, straightened my handlebars, opened my front brake and started riding (I had to undo the cable since the front wheel was so out of true and it still rubbed!). I got no more then a quarter mile down the road when my front tire blew out from rubbing against the brake pads causing me to almost crash a second time. Whew close one. I started calling friends to have someone pick me up and eventually Jon took me home so I could clean out my wounds.
Crashing sucks but I had a 4-hour ride I HAD to do the next day so I sucked it up and kept moving. It affected about a week of training but I was still getting my rides in (maybe a little slower then usual). It’s good to be young!”
And the crash that keeps on giving:
To make matters worse my Saddle snapped in half a week later on a training ride when I was still an hour away from home so with the leather holding it together I sucked it up and well…took it in the ass.
Two:
This is just embarrassing so we’re not even going to get into this one. I wouldn’t even define this one as a crash but more of a fall per say. Luckily I was riding slowly and since I had my hands on my helmet at the time my cheek broke my fall and took the impact… I think next time I’ll just find a 5-foot wall to jump off and land on my face.
Three:
This one is hot off the press and just happened this afternoon. 5 laps into the Crit I was sitting in great position (top 10 out of 100) and in slow motion I saw the guy in front of me go down with his front wheel right in my path. Fortunately it happened as we were exiting a corner so our speed was already down plus I managed to slam on my brakes milliseconds before crushing his front wheel and going over my handlebars. A few scratches here and there but nothing too bad; most importantly my bike was ok. I took my free lap and managed to get back into the race (fyi: anger combined with adrenaline is an awesome combination for racing) so within a few laps I had made my way back up to the front. I didn’t finish all that well in the end (maybe 20th) but I can’t really use the crash as an excuse, I’m fine.
Broken stuff minus my Ipod, Bib Shorts, and Skin
