Posted: Fri Jul. 11, 2008 12:45 pm
Hello Everyone,
Just in case you have heard through the grapevine that I had a little battle for real estate with a car this week ? I wanted to let you all know that I seem to be recovering rapidly.
For those of you who are interested in the details ? here is the story: I was riding my new TT bike from Sunapee to Weare, on my way to Nick?s soccer game. I was having one of those very special rides ? one of my top 5 for the year to date (You know what I mean ? the kind where you are delivering power to the pedals, riding at a nice high cadence, on top of the gear, family life and bike riding have dovetailed together like the joinery in a fine piece of cabinetry, it?s a beautiful summer evening, and you cannot imagine how life can get any better). I had just crested the rise just before Henniker on Rt 114 at approximately 7:30PM, when I noticed a car coming toward me with their left blinker on. I instinctively took my hands off of the aero bars in order to get into braking position on the bull horns and tried to figure out whether or not the driver was going to yield to my right of way ? He did not! As the car began crossing in front of me, I had to decide whether to try and make it around the front or back of the vehicle ? in a split second decision, I made the right choice ? the back! I hit the brakes hard and the front end really grabbed. The rear end of my bike swung around to the left (good thing) and I managed to flat-track the bike down the road (instead of laying it down under the car). My front wheel hit the car just behind the rear wheel and I catapulted through the air. I landed on the back of my head and my left hip. My helmet absolutely shattered. I rolled to a sitting position and watched my water bottle go skipping across the road as the car come to a stop on the side road. My first sense of pain was from my left elbow. I grabbed it with my right hand and, once I got my courage up, I took a look to survey the damage. Much to my surprise, I only had a minor raspberry about the size of a quarter. On my gloveless hands I only had two small ? inch scratches. Everything else looked OK. I then started to feel the pain in my hip. I braced myself as I removed my jersey (which was pretty torn up) and pulled away my bibs (which showed only very minor damage). All I saw was a 6 inch diameter scratch (not really a raspberry as it was not bleeding or oozing at all). I got up and went over to my bike to see how well it survived the crash. As I bent over to pick it up, I was surprised by how intact it still was and by how much my head/neck/shoulders hurt. I took off my helmet and was amazed that I did not have a scratch anywhere from the top of my head down to my elbow. I was pretty sore, but my skeletal system seemed to be in reasonable working order!
The police, firemen, and EMTs arrived in a few minutes. Everyone was great! They wanted to take me to the hospital, but I told them I did not need that and that my wife was only 10 minutes up the road. Once the police were finished with their accident scene investigation, they asked if they could take me to the fire station to get me off the road. I happily complied and they put me in the back of the ambulance for the ? mile ride toward town.
I did not sleep very well Wednesday night ? but felt good enough on Thursday morning to put the signs up for the Prouty Ultimate (see related post). I also was able to go to Loudon last night and ride (somewhat) comfortably in the A race.
My family, training, and racing schedule has not enabled me to connect with you folks much this summer ? but I have been thinking about you and following the posts on the website. It has been great to see Dan at the track on Tuesday?s and Tina and I had a fabulous time joining Ryan, Dana, and Lori for the Tuesday night pinnacle run this week. Good luck this weekend, both on the Prouty and at the Pinnacle!
It seems to me that I have had more encounters with drivers who are either not paying attention or fail to yield to my right of way this year. Unless I make eye contact, I assume they have no idea I am there. Even though this was not enough to get me through this last encounter without incident? I think it definitely helped minimize my injuries!
Ride Safe,
Chris
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