Lakefront Pile-up

I was feeling unusually tired all day at work yesterday, which was keeping me kind of on the fence about doing the Wednesday Night Worlds out at the lakefront. By 4:00, though, things had gotten pretty quiet and I had a chance to catch the finish of the US Pro Cycling Challenge on Tour Tracker as they raced in to Aspen.  As the pack, mostly all back together after the earlier climb, was closing in on the finish the video feed started getting worse and worse.  Finally, it cut off altogether and they started showing video from earlier in the day and pictures of cute children waiting at the finish line. It has started to rain and, since they were probably already at around 10,000 feet, the helicopter apparently started to ice and had to pull up.  So finally the video comes back on, much to the relief of Phil Ligget, and we get to see a pretty exciting final few kilometers that rather surprisingly ended with a win by that old guy George Hincapie, once again proving the old saying, "Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill."  Not that George is particularly lacking in the skill department.  So with that, and an opportunity to slip out of the office ten minutes early, I decided I may as well ride out to the lakefront and jump into the training race.

I rode up Carrollton and Wisner at a nice easy pace, arriving at the Elysian Fields traffic circle at precisely the right time, merging smoothly into the 25-rider group as it started its half-lap warmup.  The wind was light at the start and although there were a few attacks and brief breakaways, in general the training race yesterday was staying firmly within the "moderate" range, relatively speaking.  I had decided before the start to sit in for the first two (of four) 6-mile laps before putting my nose into the wind, so when we started lap 3 I moved up and did a little more work, occasionally finding myself off the front when the pace would slacken. At one point there was an acceleration at the front and a gap started opening ahead of VJ.  As often happens, VJ didn't respond, but for some reason the riders behind him were having a hard time making a commitment to go around.  It was as if they were sitting in a nice soft easy chair in a house that was on fire, but didn't want to get up because it was so comfortable.  Of course, eventually riders started jumping around from behind and things got caught up, but not without a fair amount of unnecessary effort.

With about half a lap to go the group was still mostly intact and although the pace was getting faster and more aggressive, it still wasn't putting too many people in difficulty.  The wind had started picking up and was coming from the lake as we headed east, which resulted in a pretty long line up against the right-hand curb.  I was up near the front six or seven with Daniel, Kenny, Francis, and Allie, among others.  There had been a little surge that had just subsided and just ahead of me and to the left Kenny and Francis suddenly eased up.  Apparently they had both started to attack through the same gap at the same time and when each realized that the other was doing the same they both backed off at the same time. From behind I thought they had actually bumped shoulders or something, but anyway the effect was that a couple of riders went past them on the left and the rest of us, including the rider in front of me, went right, which put us right up against the curb.  It all happened very quickly, and just as quickly we got straightened out and everything seemed fine.  I had time to say aloud, "What was that about?"  I'd no sooner gotten the words out of my mouth when I heard the sound of crashing riders behind me, complete with some rather harsh "vocalizations."  We eased up and turned around, and I was surprised to see so many people on the ground.  I guess that the sudden slowdown, together with the light crosswind, overlapping wheels, and end-of-race jitters had made for a bad combination.  By the time I got back there Charlie D. was sitting on the curb with the back left shoulder of his jersey shredded and what looked like an obvious collarbone break. Robert M. was still lying on the road with blood all over his lower face, and a few others were still trying to untangle themselves from the pile-up.  The fire department and ambulances arrived shortly thereafter and a few of us spent some time searching the roadway for a couple of broken teeth that Robert was missing. I think it was Doug who also had a shoulder injury - maybe just an acromyoclavicular joint issue - and Elizabeth had jammed her wrist badly enough that she couldn't pick up her water bottle.  In addition, there was a fair amount of road rash and broken wheels all-around.  Once the first riders had gone down, it looked like most of those behind them had no option but to plow right into, or over, them. It was a pretty big crash, but it had been caused by a combination of four or five little things that, by themselves, wouldn't ever have caused problems.  As I rode with Allie back uptown, feeling like I'd really dodged a bullet, I was glad I had left the blinky light on the bike from the Tuesday morning ride because it was a bit later than usual by the time I got home.