Update -some graphic images

So stage 3 of Catskills was going good. I made it over the first batch of climbs in the lead group. After the feed zone there was a long downhill. All I remember was a loud bang, and then I was sliding across the asphalt. Garmin revealed I was travelling at over 70km/h when I went down. I thought "I should be rolling and not sliding", hoping not to get so much road rash. I came to a stop though before I could start rolling. Confused as to what the hell happened, I got up in pain and moved to the side of the road. The race director got out of the car and started to check up, classic first aid style. At this point I realized something was wrong with my shoulder and I was down most of a finger nail. 4 or 5 riders also went down about 50m up the road. After I got home and inspected everything I noticed my front tire was ripped in two spots. I have come to the conclusion that there was something sharp like glass on the road. No idea why I went down so fast, I thought I would have been able to ride something out like that for a bit, as my tire was still on the rim. The people up the road were apparently brought down by Gaelan Merritt who flatted his tubular but was able to ride it out a bit and slow down before going down.

I refused the ambulance trip to the hospital because I didn't have my travel insurance information on me and I didn't want to make a shitty situation any worse. Robert Gutgesell's dad was following the pack and was able to give me a ride to where I was staying. I managed to get my stuff and Richard Bartolo finished cleaning and packed the car. We checked out and headed to Albany Medical Centre. I got great service here, as soon as I got there, they gave me some pain meds and I was given a room. I got sent for a bunch of x-rays and came back with diagnosis of broken scapula. Before I left they removed the rest of my finger nail, cleaned some of the wounds and stitched up my knuckle (you'll see why in the picture). Finally got to eat just after midnight after picking up the pain meds to get me through the next few days.

After getting back to Canada I got my shoulder re-xrayed and was told I was lucky the break was away from the ball and socket joint. Also it wasn't displaced so no surgery is required. Also now thinking the grass I sat in on the side of the road had poison ivy as my legs are now covered with a rash. Awesome, right? However, this is season ending for me as I won't be back outside on a bike for another month. Really sad to have my season end this way. I was excited for the upcoming race schedule with stage race in Mississippi Mills, maybe Green Mountain stage race, and of course the Centurion Prospects Challenge.

Really sweet to look at the garmin graph and see the steep drop off in speed at the end: here

Anyway, here are some pictures of the wounds. It could have been much worse so I will count my blessings.

My parents coming to get me in my hospital scrubs

Nice little flesh wound. Lucky for you the finger nail is covered. That looked nasty.

Some shoulder road rash, cleaned a bit

Full right side damage

Tour of the Catskills - Stage 2

Through the night I woke up a few times with my knee being sore, so I wasn’t sure how this was going to pan out. I had some spidertech tape with me so I threw it on a little before heading out. Today was the circuit race with a nice 1.5km climb on each of the 3 laps. Race was a little shorter than the tech guide said as I crossed the line with 107km. The scenery again was nothing short of breath taking (assuming you had any during the race to spare).  The start and finish was at Windham Mountain resort so it was a nice little punch to the finish, with a long gradual climb leading up to it.

The race started and the neutral start dropped us off a little before the climb. Pace was high on the first lap with lots of action going on in the front. The group split up a bit on the climb, but came back together on the long and fast descent. After you had enough time to recover from the climb the pace picked up again for the sprint points at roughly halfway through the lap. The roads were fast until we took a right turn back onto highway 23 where it started to go uphill again. The first section of this was the hardest as you sprinted out of the corner to be met with some little hills at a high pace that made the legs burn. For the first lap everything stayed together for the most part despite the attacks.

Heading into the second lap the climb was the same except I saw some people suffering on the climb that I didn’t expect to see. Once we got over the top I was with a small group including Merritt and Bird who paced us back to the group. In this I think I went into too much of an aggressive aero tuck and bent my knee too far (only gets about 90 degrees worth of bend right now on a good day, maybe should see a doctor). After that my knee gradually got worse as the race progressed.

After we caught on I found myself moved right up to the front of the group. I stayed there for a while until a flurry of attacks sent a bunch of riders past me. I struggled a bit as we turned onto 23 but caught back on.  We turned into the third lap and the pace was much more calm this time on the hill. There were a few riders that separated but for the most part the peloton stayed together. I was starting to lose my ability to put pressure on my left leg standing (I thought it was supposed to be healed!). I should have been closer to the front, but I was near the back when we turned onto 23. The pace was high as the group was working to chase down the break. I couldn’t stand to sprint around the corner and lost the group. I tried to chase and catch on but I was no match for the driven peloton.

The next 17km I was plagued with bad thoughts about the stage and the weekend, and whether I should even start on Sunday. As I passed the right turn for the circuit I noticed there was a crash in the group as there was a rider pretty scraped up sitting at the side of the road being taken care of by race vehicles. I rode the rest of the way up to the finish passing one more person on my way. Finished the day losing over 7mins on GC.

Afterwards I congratulated Merritt on his “fourth place” (results say otherwise right now but I believe him). Then Bruce Bird gave me some motivational words and I was feeling better. After doing some easy spinning, icing and some Aleeve, my knee was feeling good again and I am motivated to take the start tomorrow!

Garmin data: HERE
All the result links for this weekend are HERE

Tour of Catskills- Stage 1

I got driven to New York with my roommate for the few days away, Richard Bartolo. We managed to get out of Canada before the whole Burlington Skyway accident happened luckily. The drive took us around 7hrs from Hamilton with maybe one too many rest stops but it was good to get out and stretch the legs. After picking up some groceries we set out to find where we were staying. It is a little apartment atop of someone’s garage. I thought it was going to be tiny but once we got in the door it was quite roomy. The “high speed” Internet was at dial-up connection speed and only could get the Wi-Fi in one room. The U.S. text plan was a waste, as I had no cell service here. I was hit with a single bed for the next few nights, but hey racers are supposed to be known for being broke and roughing it, right? Finished the day off with a pre-ride of the TT course and race packet pickup. I unfortunately broke a spoke on my pre-ride so that meant no powermeter for the TT. The hills here are amazing and the scenery is outstanding. The one problem is that there are so many trees so it can be hard to get the views sometimes.

Car all packed up!

Some of the lovely scenery here in Catskills

First day of the race was a 16km time trial, up a gradual hill and back (but not all the way back down it). My knee is finally starting to feel good on the bike after messing it up in a mountain bike crash just over two weeks ago. I got to the “pre-staging” area, where I assumed the volunteer there was sending people up as their time approached as he was calling out times to go up every minute. My start was at 12:06, and he sent up 12:05 so I was ready to go. I kept looking at my clock and he said 12:07, so I sprinted up, worried, to the start line where they sent me off immediately as a late start. I was furious! There must have been a miscommunication of some sort, but it seemed like such an unnecessary way to lose 36 seconds as I was standing there waiting for the 10mins leading up to the start.

I started the TT off with anger and sprinted up the first few inclines before settling into a hard pace. They say go harder on the uphill so I kept my heart rate around 4-6bpm above normal. Before the turn around two guys passed me. It didn’t feel great as I was giving it everything I had but I kept pushing through. I was happy to see the turn around as it meant I was well past halfway time-wise and it was downhill the rest of the way. Running a 54-11 I was able to keep the pressure on the pedals when the speeds got over 60km/h. I passed one of the guys that got me on a downhill. I was feeling good! I think I got too excited as my legs were starting to call it quits on me and I could feel my pace ease up a bit. The guy passed me one more time but I kept him close right until the finish. I congratulated the guy after on a nice TT, then went to shift into my big cassette when BOOM! Chain skipped off the cassette into the spokes, snapped two spokes and the derailleur hanger, and bent the derailleur cage pretty good.  At least it happened once I finished… After arguing with the commisaires about my start time (to no avail), the race director was nice enough to give me a ride back to where I was staying because my bike was obviously unrideable (I biked to the start line).

Derailleur shouldn't be there...

After this I realized I needed wheels to race on for the next two days. I headed to the local bike shop and they fixed up my powermeter wheel on the spot and I left them my zipp wheel to fix overnight. These guys were awesome and saved my weekend. I am sure I could have gotten a wheel from someone but this mentally helped me. Stay tuned for next two days of reports and more photos once I get home to good Internet!

Nice cloth numbers pinned and ready for stage 2!