Riding a bike comes with all types of dangers. You get to know this. Riding a bike in the city is an unpredictable thing, other motorist, cyclist, and pedestrians, potholes weather conditions, its just can become one hell of a adventure. Its almost like a game, and requires a lot of attention to detail. Knowing your element is key. Anyone who rides a bike should know that. Anyone that knows me know’s that I have had my own share of accidents and fails. Some of my own fault and some not.
These last two weeks have been rough for me. I got tagged by another cyclist in Critical mass, the one event that I truly do not support but ended up going to anyway. I came away with no injuries but my my front wheel and deeply loved Nitto B123’s did not make it. To make a short story even shorter, Dont ride in a group of drunk riders, and that is exactly what critical mass is.
Now, with the coming events of May, many races, and cycling events I have personally taken on myself to become a better rider. A stronger rider. I am aware of the top riders in San Francisco, Steve, Chas, Alex, to name a few, and I want to take them all out in the coming summer.
So to Recap on Yesterdays crash, i’ve been training solo and hard. Ive been out doing road rides and yesterday I was out on my favorite road ride, the Paradise Loop (P-Loop). Ive been riding the P-Loop for quite sometime now and I know it inside and out. Hell, I’d go as far and call it my home course. My Friend Dom has been doing some hardcore training on it for the last few months, doing doubles and even triples on it sometimes, and take into note that we are only riding our track bikes on these 45-50 mile loops.
Anyway, yesterday I crashed. Hard. I can honestly say that this was the worst crash that I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been in my share of bad ones. I was coming around the Loop probably about 2 miles from the end when I manage to achieve pedal strike. If you dont know what that is, its just when a rider get at to steep of an angle and their pedal hits the ground. This is what happened yesterday. I was probably going a good 20-25mph and it completely threw me off my bike. Hell, its was horrific. I never saw it coming, i just felt the impact and next thing I know I was on my back in major pain.
Now again, the Paradise Loop could be considered a canyon road, a narrow 2 lane road circling the coast of Tiburon. Worst situation possible almost, but lucky for me I crashed in front of another cyclist doing the Loop in reverse. He saw it all and managed to get me off the road as we were in a blind corner. Apparently I caught my pedal, lost it, roll 3 times, rag doll effect and all. I was bleeding, cut, name it all. To give you a clear idea of how hard i crashed, there was a huge crack in my Giro helmet. I hit my head twice, and that saved my life. I am very grateful that i was wearing it.
So this cyclist got me off the road and a few more stopped. I was a wreck. They manged to flag down a nice old man and he gave me a lift to the Tiburon Fire station where I was cleaned up and released. I managed to take a ferry back to SF as I was unable to ride and I was tweeting all of the details when one of my followers offered a ride. I could not be more grateful for twitter right now, as this complete stranger picked me up from San Francisco and gave me a ride to Oakland. I was then taken to the hospital where I got the clean bill of heath and a nice bottle of pain killers.
Anyway, yesterday was crazy. I am bandaged up like crazy, I managed to destroy bot shoulders, left hip, and both legs, and my left elbow. My bike made it though, frame wise at least, but I wont be riding for a while.
Lady Luck, I seriously love you as you have been watching over me all this time. I cannot thank the other cyclist’s who stopped and helped me, the guy who gave me a ride into town, Twitter for getting the word out, Peter who gave me the ride, Giro for making strong helmets, Masi and Tim for making great bikes, and everyone who sent me the well wishes. I wont be racing this week at all and that hurts but I will be back riding soon.
Wear your helmets and ride safe folks, shit get dangerous and we all need to look out for each other, lets all ride smart.
I have a few pictures of yesterday and I’ll upload them later, until the next time folks…
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