Kristin Rides

Wow. All I can say, is this was not a good introduction to bike racing.

Sunday morning I woke up early and drove down to Silverton, Oregon for a 35-mile road race. It was overcas, a little drizzly, and in the 50s (typical oregon fair). First the cat 4/5 men went off, then the cat 1-There women, then finally us cat 4 women. There were about 25 of us, about the same for cat 1-3 (the cat 1-3 men were racing that afternoon). The course was a lot of climbing, rolling hills, definitely a challenge. After about 200 yards of bombing down a hill (and freezing our asses off), the lead car took us on a hairy right turn straight up a hill; after cresting that monster another car came up and said that we were all going the wrong way and had to start over. That was a rather aggravating, especially since we already had 1 rider down (not sure why). Once we were back on course, 2 other riders went down, and I knew it was going to be a weird day, and boy was I right.

Due to all those core classes I’ve been taking, my hammys and hips and obliques were all still sore unfortunately, so climbing was out. I was dropped almost immediately. With the cold and occasional bouts of rain and extremely sore hamstrings, it was a mental struggle to get around that course. And then to do it again (2 laps). Ow. I was really proud of myself, that I got through that monster. Just as I was coming to the end and mentally congratulating myself, the cat 4/5 men came upon me on the last climb. (lapping me, as this was their 3rd and final lap). The finish was not closed off to traffic, so everyone had to stay on the right side of the road (which turned out to be rather unfortunate).

There were about 20 or so men really tightly packed together; I soft pedaled and held my line, praying they wouldn’t run me off the road. They quickly passed me, and as I crested the hill and began my final short descent to the end, I saw a bunch of cars blocking the road. I slowed to a stop, and saw the carnage. It looked like a car bomb had gone off…there was bike gear everywhere, about 5  or 6 guys on the road writhing and moaning, people running around not knowing what to do…wow. I tried to see if a PV guy had gone down but I only saw 1 helping, and I couldn’t stop since one of the race directors was yelling at me to bike to the finish and see if anyone had medical training. oh man. Talk about terrifying.

Suffice it to say there were no results recorded as far as I know, and they canceled the afternoon races. Ambulances were called in, and from what I hear, there are some pretty banged up riders. Time trials are looking better and better.