After Superweek last week and a good taper this week I was raring to go for the 20th annual Wells Fargo Twilight Criterium (aka, the Boise Twilight). Heather and I have been resting with our feet up all day and were both looking forward to riding aggressively tonight. The temps were supposed to get up to 105° but by the time we left for downtown Boise the temperature was already dropping from a max of 102.2° at our house in Eagle (we have one of those indoor/outdoor digital thermometers).

Heather’s race was first and we found a great parking spot right near the 4th corner. I setup Heather’s trainer in an empty parking spot behind ours to save the spot for Ted. I also put my race bike in a stand next to Heather to further dissuade anyone from trying to claim the spot. As Heather was warming up and I was in the car resting, a gust of wind kicked-up and blew my bike over. It fell down on the driveside and scratched the rear derailleur. This ticked me off because ever since I built this bike I’ve babied it. Little did I know that that incident was an omen for worse things to come!

Heather’s race started just before mine, so I didn’t get to watch much of her race. Kristin was there and after coming off two national titles, she was riding aggressively and going off the front. I could see Heather in the pack but she didn’t seem to be feeling that great. I took some photos then went back to the car to get ready for my race. I later learned that Kristin won it in a solo breakaway Heather only got 12th or so in the field sprint. I could see she was disappointed as she wished we well at the start line for my race.

Since it was so hot out and it was a 90-minute event, I decided to wear my aero Camelbak under my jersey. I had it filled with lots of ice and removed the thermal barrier so the ice could cool my back. I also put ice cubes in my jersey pockets and down the back of my bib shorts. I had a good staging position and was ready to go from the gun. When the gun went off (they actually used a gun this time) I started hammering through the first and second turns and ended up in 2nd or 3rd wheel. I worked hard to keep my position at the front of the pack and would try to get on riders who were attacking. I knew with Toyota-United here there’d be a break as was the case with most of the Superweek crits. Sometimes I’d cover a move and I’d really have to dig to hang on, but I didn’t have the horsepower to pull through. I felt good, but I didn’t feel incredible. I also kept in mind that it a long race and didn’t want to burn too many matches this early. I also didn’t chase anything down that didn’t have a Toyota-United person in it.

I stayed active at the front and then 25 minutes into it (I know because the computer stopped timing at that point), I was at the front and things were single file when someone came into me from my left side. I thought it was odd since I was holding a straight line and we were on the straightaway. I was totally expecting him just bump me and then move off. But for some reason, I could feel his pressure more and more on my left side. Then, all of a sudden, I’m going straight down into the pavement at 30+ mph!!! I remember thinking, “Oh, no, not my nice race bike!”

Once I hit the deck, I pulled myself into the fetal position to make myself as small as possible and protect my limbs from oncoming traffic. I remember feeling a couple people either hitting me with their bike or landing on top of me. Once the dust settled, I got up and looked at my bike…my front wheel was taco’d! I had already played out a crash scenario in my mind before the race and had decided beforehand that no matter what, I’d get back into the race. With that in mind, I picked up my bike and went straight to the pit. Fortunately, the crash happened right at the pit so I only had to walk 10 feet! I told the mechanic I needed a front wheel.

At this point, I could feel the pain of the crash coming on and I had to kneel down and take a moment. It was that whole-body, aching feeling that just hurts all over. I also noticed my teeth hurt. In particular, the right front tooth, which is actually a cap. I felt around with my tongue and it seemed that I chipped the left front tooth! So I felt my mouth with my hand to make sure I wasn’t missing any other teeth and also checked for bleeding, but no sign of either. So I went back to trying to fix my bike. Since the course was only 1km long, we actually got 2-free laps for a mishap. I worked with the mechanic to get my bike straightened out. He gave me a wheel, but when I put it in the brake pads were rubbing. I tried to fix it and make it so it wouldn’t rub, but I wasn’t doing a great job.

I also had to release my rear brake pads and the mechanic straightened out my handlebars. We were nearing the time when the pack would be coming around the second time so the mechanic put it in the big ring and shifted so I’d be in the biggest cog. I jumped on the bike and the mechanic held me up for the release when the pack went by. Once released I started sprinting and it took me forever to get up to speed and it felt so hard! I got in someone’s draft but that didn’t seem to help much. I looked down at my front brake and it looked like my pads were still rubbing. “Aaaah, this sucks!!” I thought. So coming into the start/finish stretch the next lap, I raised my hand to alert the other riders I was heading to the pit.

So I get over to the left side of the straightaway and stop at the pit…again. I told the mechanic I needed a 13mm cone wrench (to center my front brake). But while he was getting it, I undid then re-did my front wheel and it fixed the rubbing problem. I guess it wasn’t in correctly before so it was no wonder I could never get the brake pads to not rub. The mechanic then held me up and when the pack came around again (I didn’t need two-laps this time), and he gave me a push back into the race. This time I was able to get up to speed much faster and integrated myself with the pack. My heart was still racing but at least I could keep up. I finally started to assess the damage and realized that my left elbow was hamburger. I wasn’t too bummed about that since that elbow already had an ugly scar from the crash in which Heather and I met. The inside of my left knee had road rash but my legs didn’t feel bad pedaling.

So I just tried to relax and sit in for a while to recover. This was hard as they did plenty of pack primes which kept things fast the whole race. At one point I was pulling hard with a string of riders on my wheel. I pulled off to the left, probably too quickly, and the rider right behind started yelling at me. I guess he was already starting to come around me on that side so I freaked him out. With the crash and all the adrenaline pumping, I even yelled something back at him. I don’t remember exactly what I yelled, but I am pretty sure I did it without cursing, which was a good thing with all the spectators there!

I have to make a side note at this point: When I’m racing, I’m always focused on how the race is going at that very instant. I’m just acting and re-acting to what’s going on in the race. In doing this so intently, I find that when I need to recall how my race unfolded I find myself forgetting exactly what happened, or sometimes I get the events in the wrong order. So consider this my disclaimer that all my race reports may not be totally accurate — they’re just my best recollection fo what went on.

There was a break up the road, so random riders would launch, and then the pack would surge to chase them down. The pace was erratic but I was able to hang on. Towards the end of the 80 laps, I was sitting about mid-field and tried to stay out of trouble. I never could get to the front of the pack but when I came around for the final sprint I was able to make up a few places to get 30th. I was glad it was over and I took a couple cool-down laps to find my friends who came out to watch. I then found the medical tent and had my wounds cleaned out. That was actually the worst part, it stung like the dickens!

It took a while for medical to clean out and dress the wounds and then we talked to a few more people. By the time we got home, showered, and had Heather re-dress my wounds, it was almost 1:00 AM. Heather was still undecided about doing the Morning After Crit since her start time was at 8:45 AM. But as long as I didn’t feel terrible, I wanted to do the Pro1/2 race scheduled for noon. We went to bed for some much-needed sleep.