The Result

I got to Denver Thursday evening and checked into my hotel.  I went to the riders meeting and met the other racers.  I put my bike together and took it for a test ride before getting dinner at Chipotle.

I woke up race morning at 3:45 and tried to fall asleep.  I got out of bed at 5:45 and got breakfast and rolled my bike outside to a very chilly 50 degree morning.  My bike was loaded into the box truck and the vans pulled away.  I was left behind.  I finally got a ride after 7AM and realized I would not get to pre-ride the course.  
I grabbed my bike and started making preparations to race.  I took my leisure since I did not start until 9:26:30 AM.  I found  a trainer and started my warm-up an hour before race time, pretty much perfect.  I got in a great warm-up and traded some trash talk with one of the Visually Impared riders on a tandem in good fun.
I rolled to the line for my start time and when the holder was keep me upright and I was in the pedals my left leg started shaking.  One symptom of Cerebral Palsy is spasticty and when I get nervous my leg shakes.  So I'm shaking in my pedal when I get the "go" signal and as soon as I started my leg was ok.  
I rolled up to speed on the first stretch and was having to keep myself from going too fast.  The course turned nasty after that.  I took the first sharp turn and was faced with the first hill.  It was short and it was steep and it killed the momentum I had.  By the top I was starting to feel the burning in my lungs.  My legs were fine, but my lungs were on FIRE.  I was feeling the effects of the thin air.  After the hill I came to a long section of S cueves and rode through them pretty fast.  I rode through some very tight turns and started the return trip.  My legs were still feeling good and my lungs were still burning.  I was not accelerating up the hills or out of the turns well at all, but I was able to hold a lot of speed in the flat, straight sections.  I came to the last sharp turn directly into a steep hill.  It was very painful to ride up but the finish was close.  I rode hard to the line but I looked at the clock and knew it was not enough.  My time was 21.52 which was an average speed of 23.4mph.  

I will write about the post-race happenings at a later time.

Quick Update

I am running around and packing everything up so I can leave in the morning.  Allow me to rewind a bit.  I am healing up very nicely.  I have been out on my bike several times since my crash and I feel like I will be racing at 100%.  After I visit the chiropractor this afternoon everything should be just about perfect.  
I am going to be gone for 3 days and my packing list is already 2 miles long.  The amount of junk I have to lug around is phenomenal.  It's not the big stuff that concerns me, as I know I won't forget the bike.  It's the little things like the pump adapter for the disc (race) wheel, contact solution, socks, and other easily overlooked items that can grind a trip to a halt if forgotten.  That's why I made the list, and that's why the list is as long as my leg, which is not all that short.  
I finished all my errands for the trip other than the chiro.  I dropped by the bike shop to pick up some odds and ends, and swung by the bank to get some cash, and picked up my new car since my old one died last week.
Back to packing.

Forced to Put Things into Perspective

I crashed last night.  The short story goes like this:
I was on the Elon ride and we were in a rotating paceline (see the video) on our way to the first sprint point.  



My good friend Kevin decided he was going to break free of the group about half a mile out.  I was behind him, saw his move, and stayed glued to his wheel.  No one else responded and he/we had a gap on the field.  I decided to go for the sprint from 150 meters out.  I stood up out of the saddle and pulled my left foot out of the pedal on the 3rd stroke.  I went down on my left side.  The last thought that crossed my mind before contact was, "do not let go of the bars until contact or you'll break a collar bone."  The resultant injuries are scrapes on my left knee, right shin, left elbow, right elbow, my lower and upper back, and my bottom.  My left shoulder is bruised and I have some tightness in both shoulders.  My helmet is destroyed and I think my shoes are unuseable.  I ripped up a brand new Palmetto Velo Sports jersey and shorts.  Palmetto Velo is the local team I race with.  In spite of all that I seem to be ok and I will be doing an easy ride tonight to see how my legs feel.  

I've thought a lot about my trip to Denver, and I am still very excited to race there.  Before my crash I was getting nervous about the race, but I am very calm now.  I know that I have rode hard and done everything that I needed to do to prepare for this race.  There is no reason to fret about it.  Worrying will only mess me up, I am just thankful now that I will be able to race next week.  While my goal is still to win, I will be happy as long as go out there and ride as hard as I can.

Pictures:
This helmet is destroyed but it kept me from dying or becoming further disabled!


A picture of the left side of my body.


This is my left knee.

First Ride on the New Wheels

I went out this morning to put in my training ride before work. I was dying to ride the new wheels, so waiting until after work was not an option. Bluff road is not a fun place to be at 7:45 AM. There are a lot of very impatient drivers out at that time such as the semi that moved into my lane and nearly hit me. I rode into the grass to avoid becoming a bloody mess on the side of the road. Other than traffic, my intervals were good. 8 minutes in the biggest gear on the bike, it felt like a gym workout. I knocked out 4 of those before I had to get ready for work.
The wheels are great! The roll so fast when they are at speed, and being able to go faster without pedaling harder is a very nice little bonus. The wheels sound cool, too.

Tomorrow's ride will be the Summit Ride after work and I am planning on taking my road bike since it works better in groups and on the hills. Rick Kattouf is supposed to be coming down for the ride, I am really looking forward to riding with him.

Early Morning

I was up this morning at 5:45 so I could meet Jim for a 6:30 ride that started a little after 7.  The weather was gorgeous and traffic was light.  I was doing 10km intervals and the first one was strange.  It hurt in the beginning but by the end I felt like I had gone too slow.  I was having computer issues so I do not have an exact average for my intervals.  I need to get this sorted out.  The second was faster; by my estimate it was 24 something mph, not too terrible.  I had to rush in and clean up so I could make it to my little brother's graduation.  Total distance was about 35 miles.  It was a much better ride than I had yesterday when I could not produce any power.
After the graduation ceremony I went to Cycle Center so Rebecka could refit me on the Time Trial bike.  She was dialing my position in so I could get more aero and produce more power.  We had a long talk about racing and traveling, it was a good conversation.  
I talked to Rick Kattouf today.  I will be going up to Greenville on Monday to pick up a set of race wheels; a rear disc and a HED60 deep dish front.
I have a nice 3 hour ride planned for tomorrow that I am really looking forward to.