Tour de Murrieta - Crashed Out Bigtime

Masters 45/55+ Crit Field, photo by Maya Grove

Well the Tour de Murrieta should be one forgettable race weekend. And would be too, if I didn't have a face that looks like hamburger and a bike with a broken handlebar and stem. I should have known that my DNF in Saturday's crit was my omen to leave this race alone. One ambulance ride later (my first) where I heard the EMT radioing ahead the following: "we've got a 52 year old male with multiple lacs, abrasions, possible head and lower back trauma..." I've included a picture below, look at your own risk.

First the crit. I awoke Saturday morning with bad lower back spasms. The bed in our San Diego apartment is definitely 2nd string and has been known to cause this problem before. I usually sleep on a single mattress on the floor as the floor keeps the mattress firm. In any case, I didn't use the single bed and woke up with my lower back feeling very unstable, no pain yet, it just didn't feel right. Any of you that get lower back problems would know what I'm talking about. Your back just feels funny and that it could go at anytime. My race wasn't till 12:20 or so, the Masters 45+ so I tried light stretching and other lower back exercises but it just got worse during the morning.

Photo by Maya Grove

By 12:20 it was pretty sore and only sitting on my bike (go figure) or laying flat on my back helps. Strange how sitting on my bike generates no pain what so ever, but sitting on a chair causes me all kinds of problems. Well, sitting on a bike is one thing, generating a lot of speed and power while on the bike is another. The combined Masters 45/55+ race with a full field took off like they really had a fire to get to. Lap after lap my computer was showing 25-26 mph and faster. I just didn't have the speed or snap to stay with the group so at time 22' of this 45' crit I started to drift to the back and then I pulled out. I was pretty upset with myself, as I've never pulled out of a race before. I would like to give my lower back the complete blame but I think the real truth is I just haven't trained right for a crit. I'm in very good shape riding longer road race distances and have been tearing up my club rides but crits require a lot of power and are very much anaerobic events - looking at my training journal from two years ago, when I competed successfully in many crits, shows a lot of anaerobic training; which is something I haven't been doing too much of at late.

The next day, the Tour de Murrieta circuit race; I was looking forward to this race, really a giant crit competed on a 3.5 mile section of road. The Masters 45/55+ were combined again making it a very large group, especially with the center line rule in affect. It seemed like more than 100 riders lined up for this event and I heard grumblings on how they should have divided the field for this race - I couldn't agree more, there just wasn't a lot of room on the course for a field this large. This age group usually provides much experience to road racing but the field was so big that moving up and through the peloton was almost impossible and I personally witnessed one crash and personally avoided several other "crash possibilities." I was riding well but was finding it hard to get out of the middle of the peloton. I stayed usually on the center line area which allowed me to jump left if the group got a little too frisky. Each time we would come out of a turn on the back of the course, an area where there was no center line on the street, we would use this area to gain position - I used this strategy too. The motor behind us, would roar up and motion us to get back to the right side of the road but another right hand turn was ahead and most of us stayed left to navigate this tough turn.

My accident occurred at the back of lap 8 of this 11 lap course. I have very little recollection of what happened. I remember seeing the Pro women ahead again, as we had passed them on turn 3 earlier in the race. I knew that the women would have to go neutral as our large field started passing them on the left. Our race had been very fast with lap times around 8'30" and the race announcer yelling how fast our group was to the crowd. I guess having Thurlow Rodgers out front of our peloton was really helping to drive the group. I made a mental note that we might slow down as we passed the women - poor note. I should have remembered that the first time we went by them many guys took off like scalded cats to use the confusion of the two groups to their advantage. I can't say that's what happened as we were getting set up to pass the women, I just don't remember much. I do remember some guy coming out of nowhere and slamming into my front wheel and the left side of my handlebars. He came in so fast that I didn't even have much time to register what was going on. I do remember a shocked look on his face and someone yelling out a warning but it was too late for me. The impact ripped the handle bars right out of my hands and pitched me into the street. I do remember the bike computer showing between 27-30 mph at impact but I remember little else. The EMT said I was out for a couple of minutes and that when I came around I kept asking the same question over and over. I do remember waking up on my back and seeing 3 or 4 faces hovering over me. One was a woman that was mopping my face with a towel and I heard her say that she was slowing the blood flow - slowing the blood flow??? I remember thinking, "I'm not sure where I'm at but slowing the blood flow does not sound so good." I may have said what I was thinking because someone said, "you really rung your bell, the ambulance is on the way." I tried to raise my head and that resulted in a lot of hands pushing me back down and I also realized they had put on a C-collar. They placed me on a board and lifted me into the ambulance. I was still pretty confused and it took me several minutes to figure out where I was at and what was going on.

I arrived at the hospital where they cut a lot of my clothes off and got me ready for the CAT scanner. Well the cat scan was negative for skull fractures, neck and lower back fractures. They cleaned up my abrasions and actually found a pinto bean size rock stuck inside one of my left knee abrasions. My helmet is cracked in several places and my bike has a broken stem. The bike seems to have taken the least amount of damage - thank god. I do remember asking about my bike as they were loading me into the ambulance. I also remember saying something like, "take care of my bike as it is worth more than I am."

I do want to thank the EMT, Ethan. Seemed like a great guy. Also the staff at Inland Valley Medical Center in the town of Wildomar. They all treated me well for the full day I spent in their trauma center. My wife is saying the usual things wife say after one of these - "can't you just ride your bike for fun?" Don't know about that, just know I've got three weeks to get ready for the San Diego Omnium.

Photo by Maya Grove