This weekend was definitely the most fun I had in a long time. Cycling is amazing. The cyclists are amazing. My team is even more amazing.
So today was my first criterium race. I kind of always figured that I would like criteriums more than road races or time trials because I'm a sprinter and I love to go fast (the more speed the better). So we arrive to the course at around 9 and it is freezing cold. I took a warmup lap around the course and by the time I got back, I thought the exposed part of my fingers were about to freeze off. Regardless, I skip the boring warmup stuff.
At 9:50 I head up to the start/finish line to hear names already being called (I really need to learn to get to the line sooner, but regardless, I was there before they called my name).
The race starts and I am hanging in the middle of the pack, moving up, moving back, etc. Mens D races can be very... interesting. On turn 3, probably my favorite turn of the course because its after a fast downhill and I was able to gain ground/pass people using it, always consisted of lots of braking and slowing from about 28 mph to 18-22 mph, so whenever possible I stayed wide. This generally resulted in gaining 2-4 places. So eventually my legs remember yesterday and start to give up on me. I kept pushing as much as I could to stay with the pack which lasted for two more laps until I fell back. Even once I fell back, I still fought and refused to give up ground. About 10 minutes into the race, this wound up to me catching up to my teammate Scott Kaplan who had also fallen behind the pack.
Here's where it gets good (just like the same reason people watch NASCAR, the crashes).
So I am always used to be that good teammate that pushes his team to do better, so as I catch up to Scott, I am yelling, "Come on Scott, keep pushing." He claims he told me to focus on what I was doing, which I was, but I didnt hear him say anything. There was a rider in front of us (from Pfeifer I believe) who was riding a little slower than us, but nothing too drastically different. Me and Scott are side-by-side and slowly moving right so we can get a good angle on the upcoming turn 2. All of a sudden, Mr. Pfeifer slows down semi-drastically (I think he hit the brakes, not 100% sure) and turns left. This really surprised me, so I had no time to react and turn into his wheel, so before I really think about it, I feel myself leaving my bike and my bike starting to lay down. Scott is screaming, "Joooohhhhnnn!!!!" while he speeds away.
So before I even hit the ground, my goalkeeper instincts kick in (thank you Paul Blodgett for making this second nature to me). While I'm more or less soaring through the air, I'm not concerned at all about the impending obstacle that is hard road, but rather how am I going to get up as fast as I can and continue. So before I hit the ground, I planned in my head that I would roll off of my left shoulder so that I could get up as soon as I stopped sliding. This works GREAT on grass, but of course we don't race on grass. When I hit the road, my jersey got a real nice tear in it (Sorry FoBoGro, but your logo is no longer on that jersey) and scraped my shoulder really well. I finish the roll and then slide down the road a little more which results in my entire left leg getting scratched up. I immediately get up, run over to my bike, set it up on the road, and promptly yell, "Fuck!". I see my right shifter bent at a 45 degree angle towards my tire. Regardless of this fact, I hop on my bike and take off hoping to god that I will still be able to shift or break with the right side. The whole process from starting to fall to riding away was definitely under 10 seconds due to my lack of brains to check if I'm ok.
I pass some Ap State guys sitting on the corner who yell to me to keep going and catch up. "With these handlebars?". "Good point, take a mechanical lap. [laughter]" So I speed up down the downhill and all the way around to the pit area. Apparently there was a rider catching me from behind, but I had no idea he was there until I saw video of it later in the day. I go to the pit area and they give me a mechanical lap so I had time to force my shifter over to a more or less straight angle. Once that is done, I hop on my bike while the refereeing is holding it for me TT style. I look down and see that my handlebars are facing way to the right (later figured out its actually the wheel facing left). The ref asks if I want to fix this, but I just wanted to make sure I didnt miss the pack so I declined and said I'll fix it later. I start pedaling and fall in line at the back of the pack just like I was supposed to and stayed with them for a couple laps until once again I couldnt stay with them. This time I believe it was more to my multitude of bike problems. Even once I got dropped, I still kept fighting until the end of the race.
Each turn scared the shit out of me because I could see my front wheel moving what seemed like an inch rapidly back and forth and making a very scary "ch-ch-ch-ch-ch" sound and vibrating. I finished the race fighting with every bit I had. Once I crossed the finish line, I immediately hopped off my bike because I was afraid to ride it anymore. I went over to the referees and asked if they had an EMT around who could help me clean the blood off my leg that went from my knee to my ankle. I shared some pretty good laughs with the refs and then headed over and met up with my teammates who immediately started taking pictues of my battle wounds and bike before I even reached them. I couldn't help but laugh and pose for them. I was very thankful I wasnt seriously hurt and was easily able to walk away. My bike on the other hand... I was extremely down because it was so damaged (at least I thought) and I thought it was going to basically mean the end of my racing for the summer until I could afford a new bike or many parts at least. My teammates have since assured me that many things can be easily fixed and it will cost very little.
After probably an hour of walking around trying to find people, I got my wounds all cleaned up and bandaged (not until more pictures were taken though and many MANY comments received from other racers who saw me). Thanks to everyone who was worried about me!
The rest of the day was a blast. Cheering for all my amazing teammates (Way to go everyone for your great performances, especially Nick who got first place in the Mens C race where Rich also finished top 10, Dan in the Mens B race who got 3rd (so close to first, and had an amazing race the entire time), and Sam who got top 5 in the Womens A race. It definitely was a blast waving the GW flag we have around on a stick I picked up in the woods. :)
The entire weekend was amazing and I just want to thank everyone who made my first racing experience memorable.
See you all on the road as soon as I get my bike fixed!
J-Mac
