Week 28: Retiring a Helmet and Assessing the Damage

So I had a very rough start to my Memorial Day weekend. I joined Dennis and his TNT cycle team for an 80 mile bike ride in Marin. As an assistant coach, Dennis leads a pace group, also known as "Team Wrong Way." They are a group of strong riders who are training for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, a 100 mile course around Lake Tahoe on June 7th. (So far, their entire team of 90 cyclists has raised over $310,000 to support the fight to cure cancer!) The group was nice enough to let me join in their pace line. (A pace line is a group of cyclists riding close behind one another in a line, so that each cyclist can draft the cyclist in front, except, of course for the leader, who is taking a turn to pull the rest of the group. The riders take turns pulling and drafting. A group of cyclists in a pace line can maintain a substantially higher speed than even the fastest of the group could do alone.) This was both challenging and fun for me, because triathletes don't train in pace lines due to the fact that drafting is illegal during triathlons.

The ride was an out and back with Stinson Beach as the turnaround point. In order to reach Stinson, we had to ride on Highway One for awhile. There were many factors that made this a very dangerous stretch to ride: lots of cars (it was Memorial Day weekend), lots of cyclists, rough pavement, curvy descents, and no shoulder. On one of these curvy descents, Amanda, a "Team Wrong Way" member, hit some gravel (and possibly a stray water bottle) and went down. The car driving behind her came to a skidding halt, luckily not striking Amanda. The Range Rover, driving closely behind the first car, slammed on its brakes skidded off to the right of the road to avoid hitting the car, but rear-ended it anyway. And this is where I realized I was in trouble. Since I was riding downhill, I was still gaining speed when I saw the sudden car accident. I jammed my breaks as hard as I could, but my bike doesn't go from 30 mph to 0 mph in 5 seconds, so at somewhere between 15 and 20 mph the last thought in my mind was "Oh shit, I'm going to nail the back of this car!" and then I was eating dirt. It happened that quickly.

A few other riders who were behind me and able to stop in time rushed over to help. My left cleat was still clipped into my pedal. I unclipped and rolled over on my back, and almost immediately started shivering from body shock. "I'm O.K." I remember Mickey unclipping my helmet, unzipping my jacket, and asking where I was hurting. I was too numb to access where the pain was, but I was very conscious of the fact that I couldn't see due to all of the dirt in my eyes. I stayed on my back until the numbness went away and I could feel the sting on the right side of my body, from my shoulder down to my thigh. I rolled over, picked myself up and headed over to where Amanda was sitting. The poor girl had hit her face on the pavement, she was conscious but was swollen and bleeding. By this time, Dennis had ridden back up the hill and arrived at the scene. This would be any coach's worst nightmare - to see a car accident, your rider badly injured, lots of stunned onlookers, and then throw in your fiance who's claiming to have rear-ended a Range Rover. Dennis handled the situation like a pro. He was interviewing the drivers and witnesses. When the paramedics and police arrived he read off his notes and directed them to those involved. He completely kept his cool and took charge of the situation.

It turns out that I didn't hit the car, I steered the bike off the road, and as soon as my tire left the pavement, I went down on the right. The momentum of my bike caused me to somersault, slamming by bike down on its left side and sending me into a skid. Someone had to tell me that this is what happened, because I have no recollection of crashing, only what I was thinking right before and right after. The good news was that I landed in dirt and leaves and I was wearing arm warmers so my road rash was pretty minimal considering my speed when I hit the ground. The bad news was that I cracked my helmet in 3 places, had some upper back and neck pain. I shared this info with the paramedics, and the next thing I knew, I was getting strapped on a backboard and loaded into the ambulance. Amanda was also transported to Marin General, but as a trauma patient, since she had lots of facial abrasions and confusion about what had happened.

When we arrived at the hospital, we were greeted by really friendly physicians and hospital staff. Apparently, they see people like us all the time. I mostly felt at ease with the staff until the nurse's aid pulled out the scissors and attempted to cut my shorts off. Being strapped on a backboard and wearing a neck brace gave me somewhat of a claustrophobic feeling. I think I'd handled it pretty well up until this point. Feeling steel scissors on my leg sent me into near panic mode. I very directly communicated to him that I DID NOT want my clothes cut off. The aid stated that this is normal protocol, but my doctor sensed my panic and suggested that I could somehow "shimmy out of them later." Um or not. Long story short, I didn't break my neck, but I did strain every shred of muscle in the front. Amanda's CAT-scan came back normal. Luckily the abrasions on her face were shallow enough that she didn't need stitches. Once we were done assessing all of our bodily damage, Den called us a cab back to the cars so that we could assess the bike damage...

My beautiful Cervelo wasn't looking so hot, but Den assured me that is was all cosmetic and nothing structural. He was right. The mechanics at Montano Velo did a crash assessment and gave him (my bike) a face lift: bent back the shifters, new cap on the aero bars, new tires, new chain, and new brakes. He still has some scrapes and one good dent but they're like glory scars. I've given myself a week to heal in time for next weekend's destination workout - 3/4 to Ironman Training Weekend at Clear Lake!

Condition: Stiff, sore, bruised, scraped, and a tad bit cranky