Pace Bend Crash · Feb 29, 08:47 AM
OK, so the race was going fine until one of the girls decided it would be fun to fall down at the last turn before the finish line. I’m not sure exactly who started weaving, but were going pretty fast off a descent at this point, easily over 30 mph.
I’m the one behind the girl in red and white about to do a summer sault. My helmet is gray and her rear tire is higher than my head!
Christina and Tracie went down hard in this crash. Tammy was ahead of the group when they collided, Michelle went mountain biker on us and took the grassy route to the left and I slammed on my brakes and swerved right to avoid the pile up. It all happens so fast, it’s hard to think to make a decision, you just act kinda like a car wreck.
After having practice from yesterdays crash at Walburg, Christina didn’t waste much time searching for her bike amongst the carnage pile. Tracie said she accidentally picked up the wrong bike at first and had to dig around to find her own!
After the wreck, we still had 5 laps to go and the whole tone of the race had changed. After the inital attack down the finish line, we had slowed down to see if the rest of the girls would catch up. All of a sudden, Christina shoots past us and attacks from the left hand side. (We later found out that she had drafted a suburaban which explains the rocket launch she did as she went screaming by.) It was such a motivational charge to have her and Tracie back. It was game on again!
We went another lap or two and then we came to screaching hault as we saw hundreds of racers stopped along the course. Officials had shut down the course due to injuries, so we waited about 30 mins until they let us start up again. That was not fun on the legs to just stand around, and luckily they cut us down a lap. Now all the girls that had fallen off the back were now rested and back on. It was like another race had begun.
We had one lap to go and I decided to make my move. On the last climb I sprinted to be up with the top 4 girls and we had a small gap from the rest of the field. I got in front of Christina for a lead out and pulled as a hard as I could. Well I ended up pulling Shontell instead, took the last right hand turn kinda sketchy and had to re sprint to get back in contention. It was a photo finish and I ended up getting 7th place. A strange day, and I hope my next road race goes smoothly without any more crashes!
Way to rock it Lone Star Works ladies! We still did awesome this weekend despite multiple crashes, and windy conditions. You ladies are gonna show em how it’s done this weekend at Lago!
Comment
Commenting is closed for this article.
Terlingua: No Man's Land Waco Parks Staff Takes Austin by Storm