Cherry Pie Crit 2010

Going into this race my goal was to stay in the top 20 spots for the first 20 mins of the race.  I have been doing primarily base and strength training so far, and just now adding intensity.  Also, the race was after one of my peak volume training weeks (13hrs).  So I wanted this race (plus M35+ 4/5 following) to be my intensity training for the week, and to kick-off getting back into racing for 2010.

Primarily, I was able to stay in the front half of the pack for the first 21mins, and mostly in the top 20.  I would slip back on the back side as the pack would swell up and start passing after the course’s first R90 turn after the hill.  Goal achieved so far.  As we received the word “5 laps to go”, 2 things happened:  (1)  I realized I still felt really good, surprisingly ready to mix it up for the finish, and (2) the pack started getting very jumpy.  In fact, there were no crashes until this “5 to go”…and during that one lap there were 2 crashes!  The second crash ended with a guy falling into my leg, knocking my foot and chain.  By the time I recovered the peleton was split and I was last guy in the chase group.

Our chase caught the main group during the 4th lap, and I moved up to ~25th.  At the 3rd lap, I was 15th.  Then 10th.  Then with 1 to go, I was 6th.  I was concerned that the pack would swell again at the bottom of the hill after the R90, so I hammered down the hill to accelerate up into the slipstream of the front guys and keep the pace high.  I think I entered the corner at 35mph, with my rear wheel sliding.  I entered a slide twice and recovered twice before I ended up hitting the curb, slamming me down into the hard dirt.  The net is a broken collarbone and 2 or 3 cracked ribs.  Bike looks fine, still pending a detailed inspection.  Several lessons learned on bike handling.

Meeting with the doc on Friday.  Expect that I can get on my trainer this weekend with easy spinng.  Racing by late May `10.