The pinnacle of summer racing in the Midwest is the Tour of KC in Kansas City, KS. This is usually a three day race consisting of 2 criteriums (KCK twilight crit and the Overland Park crit) and 1 circuit race (Cliff Drive Classic). Due to construction near Cliff drive this year the Cliff Drive Classic was cancelled and the KCK twilight crit was moved to Saturday.
Since Saturdays races didn’t start until 3PM, sleeping in was a welcome luxury to a race weekend. We hit the road around 10AM and was able to make the three and a half hour drive with no stress and arrived around 1:30PM. Plenty of time to walk the course, warm-up, and carb up.
My race went off at 6:15PM. For those who don’t know the course it is a simple square course with a steep climb (8 degree grade) from the start finish to a fast and furious downhill with a 90 degree right hand turn at the bottom of the hill. Shortly after the hill there is a 2 block 2 step stair stepper hill (8 degree) with a right hand turn at the top of the hill. Then it’s flat for about 4 blocks then a right to the start/finish.
The race was off (50-60 starters) and I was feeling good even with the 20mph south wind and 101 degree heat index. The hills were starting to take their usual toll on me but I just hung in and stayed in the top 15 throughout the race. With 6 laps to go my body was just wanting to shut down and pedal easy and let the pack get away but I wasn’t having any of that. I dipped into my bag of tricks and shut the pain out. With 3 laps to go I knew I needed to move myself up to be in good position for the last lap. At the start of the last lap I was sitting 8th wheel. Only a couple more minutes of hanging out in the pain cave and I would be happy. Going up the hill my legs were starting to shut down. Slowly I was falling back, 10th, 12th, 15th. “Dang it, I’m not waisting this effort!” Made it to the finish in 19th with the pack. Very happy. This is how an A race is supposed to go. Now it was time to recover in the next 16 hours for the next days race. I knew I could do this.
Sunday morning had a great breakfast at our host house. (Thanks again for your hospitality Sherri and Rick.) I didn’t want to overdo my warm up so I made sure not to do too much like I did at the Papillion Twilight Crit.
Another 50 to 60 of us lined up and were ready to go at 10:10. I had a good sound strategy and it was paying off throughout the race. My legs were feeling the best they have been in a long time. I was staying in the top 15 for most of the race. With 5 laps to go I started moving up in position. With three laps to go I was in 8th position. Now I was in the position I wanted to be in. If I could hold this out for 2 more laps I would be able to enact my final part of my strategy. My legs were feeling great. I had plenty more in my energy store and could pull this off for a podium or top 10 placing. Three quarters through the lap we had a downhill with a left turn. A rider who was two places ahead of me locked his brakes and went down in the turn. Being in a turning position I had no choice but to keep straight. In the blink of an eye my front wheel smacked into the rider on the ground at 28mph and I went over the bars and used my face to halt my progress.
I didn’t know the extent of my injuries at the time. My side was hurting and I was spitting blood, so I didn’t want to move unless I made matters worse, so I made the smart decision to just wait. Here you will see pictures of my face which we took while I was at the hospital. I could feel my face being swollen and the blood dripping all over the place. Ended up with 8 stitches in the chin, a black eye, 2 avulsions which will need a plastic surgeon to take a look at, and a chipped tooth. Thankfully no bones were broken in the accident.
Upon leaving the hospital I saw my bike and almost broke down in tears. Yes, Shaniqua was beyond repair. She has gone to the great bicycle rack in the sky. I don’t know what I am going to do at this point in time about a bike. More than likely it will be another Madone 5.2Pro or greater. The components look in good shape and it appears that it is only the frame that broke.
My overall thoughts on this is this….That’s bike racing. These things happen and there is nothing one can do about it. I will race again. I am hoping to have a replacement road bike and be ready for the Gateway Cup races in St. Louis on Labor Day Weekend. By the way, the Tour of Missouri starts in St. Louis on that weekend too. Nancy gave me the idea of printing out a picture of my face next to Jens Voight and see if he will autograph it. I think I will do that.
Thanks to everyone who has sent well wishes and offers of help, I greatly appreciate and it makes me happy to know each and every one of you kind souls. A special thanks goes out to DaTerm, without whose presence and help the weekend would have been miserable. I owe you BIG.
For now I will be riding the Grinch. Hey, cyclocross is only a month away.
3 comments:
Good racing! The up front strategy is where you'll place the best. Now to get you out of those crashes.
Really sorry to hear about your crash, but glad you had good legs and were racing well up to that point. I'm sure that nacho ride last Tuesday helped whip you right into shape :)
Dang Kevin, you're lucky that you came out that good. It could have been much much worse.
About the bike.... Al Walton had a horrific crash a few years ago on Ride the Rockies when a car pulled out in front of him on a downhill. The bike was a Trek Y-Foil.
He turned the damage into his homeowners insurance and got a replacement. Then, out of curiousity he called Trek. They had him send it back in for repair. They fixed it good as new.
Might be something worth looking into. Maybe Nick Cleveland in Norfolk can help get this going for you, or at least get you the team discount on the new bike.
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