I'm in ur crit crashing ur Cat4's

BMX I'm late to this thread, but maybe an anecdote will make you feel better.

The second road race I ever did in my life, my teammate and I were about 20 miles in, attempting to bridge up to a breakaway, and we were both hauling buckets. I was desperately clinging to her wheel hoping not to get shelled, and overlapping it a bit when she stood up and moved her bike over prolly 8" -- swept my front wheel right out from under me, and I skidded across the nasty sharp chipseal at 25+ mph. Tore my entire right side off, down to the bone in a couple places. I was so pissed off (mostly at myself) that I grabbed my bike out of the ditch and chased for a young eternity and eventually caught back on to the front.

I looked about like Jens did yesterday at the finish line, bleeding profusely, with most of my arse end hanging out of my (formerly brand new, expensive) shorts. Rode past our coach and he was like OMG ARE YOU OKAY and I was like NO!!!!! (and maybe some cuss words).

I immediately went to my teammate to apologize for making such a n00b mistake like that, and before I could even get a word in, she apologized profusely for sweeping my wheel when she stood up. She'd made the break and won the race (which was our goal, and I was bridging with her to give her support), but she thought she was in the wrong.

The point I'm trying to make here, is that it takes 2 to tango. BOTH of us made mistakes that day, and bike races are dangerous and accidents do happen. That's bike racing.

I still have a big thick keloid scar on my right shoulder, 24 seasons later, just to remind me of that. All the other ones have faded.

That same teammate and I went on to win several other races over the next 3 seasons, and we are still good friends to this day, albiet time and distance means we mostly only communicate through Facebook these days.

So yes, learn something from it, and I'm glad you're taking accountability for it, but the only way forward is through, and the only way to be a better bike racer is to keep doing bike races. Crashes just happen. Go out with some good riders and learn roadie skills, and yea it sucks to crash out a buddy, but just talk to him, ask him if he's okay, and tell him you're sorry it happened.

i'm not slamming bmx in any way, i think it's great he's trying to figure out what happened and how to handle the situation, which is a lot more than most people would do. most guys wouldn't even think it was worth thinking about and move on. i'm sure he'll learn from the situation and be a better rider for it. most of this discussion will benefit other racers who may or may not have had a similar incident.

as for apex...
it's the point in the corner where you are furthest to the 'inside' of the turn...the point furthest to the outside where you start your turn is the 'turn-in point' and the point furthest to the outside on the exit would be called 'track-out' in car racing...not sure anyone calls it anything other than the 'curb' in bike racing. an 'late' apex is more preferable to an 'early' apex as it will generally leave you w/ room on the exit of a corner. if you 'early' apex, you can run out of room on the exit...if you're the one leading into a corner, you can pick the line and determine where the apex will be.

Update

The guy that went down showed up (in a sling) to the ride last night. I had sent him a letter expressing my regret in having been involved in the situation and he knows my email address yet had not responded so I was concerned that he was holding onto anger over the incident or something but he's all cool with it. He said that's racing and stuff happens.

The interesting thing is that he has a markedly different take on what transpired. I maintain that I came up the right side of the pack and that contact was made just as we started to enter the right-hander at the end of the front straight. He claims that we were about 50 yards from the corner traveling in a straight line and that I did not hold my line and that my rear derailleur went into his front wheel. He says he has it on video.

Very interesting since my derailleur is fine and all the missing spokes on my rear wheel are on the non-drive side of the wheel. Do you think the trauma/impact of the crash has distorted what he recalls?

bmxhacksaw said:

The guy that went down showed up (in a sling) to the ride last night. I had sent him a letter expressing my regret in having been involved in the situation and he knows my email address yet had not responded so I was concerned that he was holding onto anger over the incident or something but he's all cool with it. He said that's racing and stuff happens.

The interesting thing is that he has a markedly different take on what transpired. I maintain that I came up the right side of the pack and that contact was made just as we started to enter the right-hander at the end of the front straight. He claims that we were about 50 yards from the corner traveling in a straight line and that I did not hold my line and that my rear derailleur went into his front wheel. He says he has it on video.

Very interesting since my derailleur is fine and all the missing spokes on my rear wheel are on the non-drive side of the wheel. Do you think the trauma/impact of the crash has distorted what he recalls?

Click to expand...

Dood your taking all of this waaaay too far! It was a crash, they happen in most every race be it crit, road race whatever they happen all of the time. Racers crash, thats why racers are such [email protected]' and century riders are old hairy fat dudes with helmet mirrors and sweaty bar tape.

I've been in a lot of races where I could'nt clearly remember who I was pissed at 30 seconds later. People look different in their kit both on the bike and off, teammates look similar, other kits look similar, and when your racing your brain (at least mine is) is not working properly. I cannot focus on specific details of what a kit says or what a rider looks like in a race unless I really concentrate on them for some reason like they are reeeaaallly squirly. Most of the time everyones recollection is fuzzy, if he is'nt pissed then awesome. Shake hands, tell him you'll buy him a coffee or a beer or something, and move on. After all next week it may be you wearing the sling... thats just racing and if you plan to stay a racer you must accept it for what it ultimately is... fun and dangerous.

One of my teammates directed me here and I guess I feel compelled to respond now.

Seriously, K, you've got to just let this go. Questioning my recollection is plain silly. I told you last night that things happen in racing and all I wanted was for you to realize what happened and to learn from it.

As the guy that got taken out, I had a really good perspective at what happened (better than anyone). And, last time I checked, you didn't have eyes in the back of your head. Frankly, I am not sure you even knew you took me out when you did. I would venture to guess that when you moved out, you took out my wheel and then moved forward to the front of the race (of course, I could be wrong because at this point I was curled up in a ball trying to avoid additional riders running over me).

The fact of the matter is that I was on the ground, directly parallel to my wife and family which was about 30-50 meters before the corner, still in the straight leading up to turn one. If your really feel the need I can have you talk to all of them too. But, I was fully conscious and the medical personnel helped me walk over to the corner where the med tent was. I had no head injuries, so to question what I recall, i.e., lived, is plain ridiculous.

If I'm being completely candid, just recognize you made a mistake by not holding your line. Don't do it again. Keep riding and learning. Of course you never want to take out a friend, but sometimes it happens. I am over it and you need to move on, I have. Rehashing it is silly and does nothing to help you move on from any mental scars you may have. It is not the first time I've gone down and likely is not the last. Like my coach always says, when you are racing it is not if you are going to go down, it is when.

The good news is I was able to ride for about a 1/2 hour on my trainer last night, albeit very slowly and without much power. My off-season started earlier than I anticipated but its all good. It's an inconvinience but could have been a lot worse.

Stop beating yourself up and feeling like you need so validation about what happened. I think you have done what you can and just need to move on and ride.

nuff said.

NRS