Monday was forecast as the only sunny day for the week,
after a wet weekend. So I set out on the bike Monday morning, even though the
streets and trails hadn’t fully dried out. There were sections still wet from
newly fallen rain. Wet leaves pasted on pavement were plentiful. So the road
was very slick in parts. Yes, I knew this. So I intended to ride accordingly.
Oh, the best laid plans.
Once I got out on the trail, it was still plenty wet in
places, even though the sun had come out. I got a pace going, and settled into
the ride, which I figured would be my typical out and back 51-miler. I rode at
a slowish, medium-fast pace.
At about the
five-mile point, a guy passed me going at a very crisp 20-21 mph pace. So yep,
I got on it to grab his wheel. And since I’d been a bit sluggish so far, this
was no easy bit of work!
I caught up to him, but he kept banging hard. I rested in
his slipstream. We came to a bridge where there’s a long upward gradual pitch
and as he slowed down, I passed him at around 20 then picked up speed down the
other side of the bridge. I hammered hard for several miles and didn’t see any
sign of him when I looked back.
I slowed down a bit and, seemingly out of nowhere, he passed
me again! He was on his high pace and I got on his wheel again and rested. When
he slowed a bit, I passed him again. He kept behind me about three bike lengths
as I tried to keep a strong pace. We rode through a sharp turn and I heard his
back wheel click as he stopped pedaling on it. He slowed on turns, knowing they
were slick, some in the shade. I just kept focused on my pace even on turns. (This
was where I should have kept in mind there were slick conditions. I didn’t, I
was too caught up in keeping a strong pace. #wake up!)
We rode into a section with a series of several tight turns
that comes out into a flat of about 200 yards. At the end of that section is a
tight left/right/left turn that starts off flat and ends on a short downhill to
a straightaway. I usually hit this section hard to build speed for the straightaway,
and the pavement looked dry.
But when I turned the quick right after the left, I had
leaned too far right with my weight mostly over my front tire. The tire
squirted out from under the bike and it was a quick slap down fall on the
pavement grinding hard into my right forearm and hip. Ouch!
The guy I’d been trading the lead with stopped to check on
me, nice guy. I had major road rash on my arm and felt my hip burning, but
hadn’t ripped my shorts. I was still catching my breath from hammering.
The guy helped me get my chain back on the big ring, and
recommended I go wash off my bloody arm right away. He took off, probably
riding a little slower then we had been!
I rode to a water fountain, rinsed off my arm and rode home.
The bike was OK, and I felt lucky about that, and the fact that I had no broken
bones. I could move my fingers no problem. I had a similar road rash from a squirrel
runover crash on my left side a couple years ago. So now I’ll have matching
under forearm scars.
I thought about the fall and concluded I’d made couple of
errors. First, I’m pretty sure the tire slipped because it was still wet from
earlier water on the trail. I saw the dry double curve and assumed there would
be traction. Compounding the problem was that I had a lot of my weight forward
on the bike, with too much of a right side lean over the front tire, which is
how I typically ride that section for speed. But with a wet tire, it was a bad
move, since it put a lot of sideways pressure on the wet tire, and it just
squirted off the pavement. And down I went, HARD!
So, lesson learned. It’s just smarter to ride slower and
more upright on curves when you have wet tires, even if the road is dry. Because,
well, slap down falls are a pain-fest that can keep you off the bike for
awhile. Best avoided.
Back in the saddle
Four days after my crash, afternoon rain was forecast, so I
decided to take off mid-morning for a three-hour ride and make it back before the
drops were predicted to fall. I figured I’d just turn around if it started to
rain.
I had road rash on my taped up right forearm from the recent
crash, so I was determined to keep the rubber side down. My right arm surely didn’t
need another heavy scrape off with the asphalt. Don’t know how pro riders can
ride the day after getting a nasty dose of road rash. The pain of a fresh wound
doesn’t go away too fast. Ugh. May the healing begin. It can’t come fast
enough.
So I rode without pushing for speed, i.e., fairly leisurely.
The pavement was mostly dry, but on one short stretch I had to ride through a
thin layer of mud where a mudslide had been bulldozed off the trail. I think
there’s only one thing slicker than ice or water on pavement for a road bike’s
tires. And that’s a thin layer of mud! Glad to get through that short stretch,
out and back, rode through it straight and fast.
I was stoked to see the sky turned out to be half clouds,
half sun for the whole ride. I got back at about the predicted 2 p.m. start of
rainfall. It turned out to stay rain-free for another five hours. Gotta love it
when a full ride can be had when rain is coming, but without a soak down!
Til next time, remember to strap on a helmet every time you
get on the bike. Then, keep the rubber side down, ride safely and have fun.
-- Mark Eric Larson
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