Timing the Crash to Perfection

VJ hit pretty hard

Tuesday started out as usual. I met up with the regulars, a couple of whom were MIA, at 5:45 am and we rolled out to the lakefront.  This time of year is always seems to get noticeably darker from one morning to the next.  The night before I had carefully installed some nice fresh handlebar tape with a little more cushioning than what I'd been using for the past few months. I was looking forward to Six Gap next weekend and figured it might make those six hours on the bike a little more enjoyable. Yeah, I know it was just psychological, but sometimes that's all I've got to work with.

The groups all came together along Lakeshore Drive as we approached the Bayou St. John bridge, and soon we were a long line of blinky lights as the pace started to pick up a bit. As it has been for the past year or two or three the right lane was barricaded off at the London Avenue Canal to create a safe lane for the trucks entering and leaving the pumping station construction site. The pace eased up as everyone moved over to the left lane over the canal. I was somewhere around the middle, pedaling serenely along, escheloned a bit to the right against the moderate north wind, planning on staying in the draft until I got really warmed up.

The block of concrete

After the bridge the front of the group swung over to the right to get out of the left lane, I think maybe in-between some of the traffic cones marking the cordoned off truck lane to the right, and as usual the rest of the group followed. I remember thinking we were getting back into the right lane a little earlier than usual, but we were going only 20-22 mph and it didn't seem like a problem. The next thing I knew it felt like I'd hit a brick wall and was sliding along the concrete with VJ, who had been behind me.

As the friction between my skin and the road ground me to a halt, I sat up and thought, "What the hell just happened?" I took a moment to assess the damage.  I'd hit pretty hard and bumped my head just a bit, but nothing seemed to be broken.  Just to the left of me was VJ, was still flat on the ground. I looked back and immediately saw the culprit. A big rectangular block of concrete was lying in the middle of the right lane. It looked like a section of rectangular concrete curb about the size of two large bricks. I'd never even seen it. I think that the riders toward the front  had come back into the right lane beyond the chunk of concrete and hadn't even seen it so nobody called it out, but with the crosswind coming from the left, the rest of the paceline, along with myself, must have been moving into that lane just a bit earlier, with each rider going a tad farther to the right than the rider ahead of him. Obviously my timing had been perfect and I'd just nailed the thing without even seeing it, and then VJ had crashed into me as I was going down, or more likely, over. I guess I must have done a solid block with my left hand before flipping over onto my back. VJ had taken the brunt of it on his head, however, and was a little concussed. We dragged ourselves and bikes to the curb as one of the contractor's pickup trucks that had been on it's way to the worksite stopped behind us.

Tire Track or Road Rash?

VJ finally recovered enough to sit on the curb, but then had a very brief seizure or just fainted, at which point we called 911. It could have been worse. I lost a lot of skin from my right knee, left shin (probably from the bike), and right elbow, along with a few other random minor cuts that included my lower lip and left  hand. I must have really jammed my left hand because the heel of my hand and wrist are still pretty painful when I put weight on them. Luckily, none of the road rash was very deep. Meg was on the ride and she met VJ at University Medical Center's ER where he got some X-rays and perhaps a CAT scan. From what I heard he may have cracked something in his lumbar region, but seemed to be in pretty good spirits a couple of hours later.

That afternoon I had to get checked out in one of Tulane's new 12-passenger vans so I could drive them for the cycling club when needed. I was surprised and disappointed to find that they not only expect people to drive no faster than 60 mph on the interstate, but have also installed GPS tracking so they can enforce that.  I consider driving 60 mph on rural interstate to be extremely more dangerous than driving at the speed limit, which is 70 in most places, but 75 in some areas of Louisiana and Texas. Also, of course, that means over an hour more time on the road for most of the team's road trips, meaning even later arrival times. It seems that the long-awaited passenger vans for Club Sports are not going to be very useful.

Broken 3T Handlebar

Last night I pulled the fork out of the Bianchi to make sure the steerer looked OK, which it did. The crash broke my handlebar, so I was planning on using the road handlebar currently on my track bike until I can get a new one. Then I discovered that the shifter clamp bolt on the right lever was stripped and seized.  I ended up having to drill it out.  Luckily, I have an old Campi shifter from which I can salvage a replacement bolt (although it won't be Ti or Al or whatever the one on the Super Record one was).  The shifters are about at the end of their useful lives, and the new versions aren't very compatible with the older derailleurs, so sooner than later I'll be in for new shifters and derailleurs that I can't really afford.

This morning I went out on the Orbea to assess the damage.  I was happy to find that the legs felt fine and the scraped up knee and elbow didn't seem to be problems at all.  The left  hand, however, was pretty painful over the bumps. At present my plan is to take it easy riding the rest of the week in order to give the hand as much time to heal up as possible. It's not like I'll get in better shape for climbing Hogpen Gap between now and Sunday anyway. I know one thing for sure, though.  While I had earlier been contemplating putting some serious effort into the Six Gap ride this year, plans have changed! I'll just have to play it by ear and see how I feel by Sunday, but I'm thinking a sub-6-hour time is going to be pretty much out of the question.  I'm also thinking of bringing a bottle of Advil with me.