Today was the last race of the Winter Park Mountain Bike series, the King of the Rockies. This race is a classic running annually since that late 80’s and that VeloNews has ranked as one of the top five mountain bike race courses in the world. In 1999 after winning his first Tour de France, Lance Armstrong raced here, finishing second.
I started well, staying in contact with the lead group on the dirt road before the 3 mile climb up Tipperary Creek. I was climbing well though I was concerned that I was putting too much out too early so I tried to moderate my effort a bit, fore there was still 19 miles of racing once I crested the climb. The downhill was very fast but I was caught in a string of at least 20 riders, with little room to safely pass. I started working my way up and finally was at the tail end of a group of 5. I decided not to take any more chances on the downhill and sit in until we arrived at the dirt road where I would hopefully clear the group I was stuck behind before hitting the Flume trail, a gradual downhill that’s tight, twisty and rooty.
As I cruised wtih this group down the backside of Tipperary, all of a sudden, BANG! I hit a rock in the middle of the trail. My visibility was limited, as I was following close. My front wheel slammed it and then my back. I was hurled sideways and over my bars at about 35mph. I came down (I think) upside down, twisted around on my right should/back and my head whipped at the ground hard, really hard. I rolled head over heals at least twice and then slid for what seemed like forever. I came to a stop of the right side of the trail. I did a quick assessment, moving my neck, hands, legs, etc. and noticed a sharp pain in my right shoulder. I touched my should with my hand and fell and heard bone grinding on bone. F*#K! That was it.
The staff at Winter Park was awesome, in 10 minutes an EMT Bike Patrol was at my side fashioning a sling. I stood as he did this and my words sounded like I was under water and the darkness was closing in. Luckily I sat down just in time, avoiding blacking out. Once I collected my self and we let traffic go by, we hiked out with the EMT pushing my bike and his. I managed to duck Truesdale as he went by hoping he would continue and finish. There was nothing he could do for me, and I was proud of him for showing up and racing as promised. It was a 1/2 mile hike out to a dirt road and Jeanie rolled up behind just as we arrived.
We hopped into a truck and were driven to the clinic at the resort. At this point I was deep in the pain cave… We were surprised to find out that they didn’t accept Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, and we would have to pay out of pocket. It would likely cost $500-600 for an x-ray, a sling and a dose of narcotics. There was no question that I broke my collar bone, that was visually apparent. I made a tough decision and decided to refuse treatment at the clinic and head back to Denver. I think Jeanie thought I was crazy. So she loaded up the bikes and got the car. As she pulled out of the parking lot, she backed into another car. What a day. The damage was superficial but the car was a rental so the guy said he would try to buff it out and return it but just in case he took her Insurance info.
So we headed off to Denver. It took everything within me to stay alert and focus out the pain. The switchbacks on the pass were excruciating. 3.5hrs after my crash we arrived in the ER at Littleton Hospital. In a recent post I commented I need to buy more more jerseys. I didn’t realized I’d have one cut off of me several weeks later.
Long story long, I fractured my collarbone in two places, leaving a piece floating in my shoulder. My shoulder was pretty scrapped up and swollen (they were sure I broke my scapula but thank God that wasn’t the case), my left thumb was sliced up, my right elbow and right knee had really good “trail rash”.
Well, that’s one way to end a season. So much for cyclocross this year. We’ll see what the orthopedist says this week.
They haven’t posted the official results but it looks like Bill won the series taking a REALLY tough Clydesdale class. Congratulations Bill!
Will this post has taken me 1:15 minutes to write, mostly left handed. Enough for now.
