Cascade1200_22.1

Road rash. Click photo for the back story.

I have heard there are two kinds of boatman (white water river guides)…those that have flipped a boat and those that have YET to flip a boat. Is this the same with roadies? Those that have crashed and those who have yet to crash? To date, after some 25,000+ miles I have avoided crashing. According to the book “Serious Cycling,” the average crash rate for road cyclists is every 4,500 miles (he must be referring to the racers, as the book is oriented towards that facet of cycling). I’m totally embarrassed about my “fall off the bike,” but since it is part of my C1200 story, I have decided to share it.
Anyway, in the late morning on day two I was traveling alone in cruise control on the aerobars. I was on the rather flat and quiet farm section of Naches Road heading towards Yakima going perhaps 18-20 MPH. My neck had been killing me as is sometimes the case when I overuse the aero position on 24+ hour rides (this is despite doing regular neck exercises and strength training this season). When this happens I tend to look up and scan the distant road and then drop my head for a few seconds keeping an eye on the road just in front of my wheel. I just took some Ibprofen which usually fixes the problem and was just beginning to take affect. Along this road I failed to see a deep, dish-shaped, depression (unlike pot holes that have a shadowed easy-to-see rim) in the road which bounced my front wheel, causing me to loose control and hit the deck. I didn’t see it coming. I hit and slid on my left side across the center of the road. I didn’t go over the bars. I got a good case of road rash but otherwise was OK. Thank goodness there were no broken bones. (This photo was taken a few days later.) The bike was OK, except for the bracket that holds my seatpost bag broke. I spent some time there and later at the next control fiddling with the bag, finally settling on using some bungy cords, which I acquired in Yakima, to attach my bag to the bottom of my saddle. That cost me several hours of time.
Please note that I’m the one that slows a lot, when approaching corners for fear of hitting a patch of gravel, or the one that brakes a little on the hills, rather than bombing them at 50 MPH. When I’m doing a pull in a paceline or with just one person on my wheel, I’m most attentive in looking the FULL distance down the road (regardless of neck pain). But this time, while traveling alone, I apparently zoned out and let my guard down — and paid the price. (Was I just tired from lack of sleep the prior night or was I just foolishly not looking down the road far enough? The whole thing seems so senseless…straight road, no traffic [thank goodness], no gravel, no cross winds, an otherwise reasonable road…)
Right now, my aerobars are about 4cm below the top of my saddle, so in the future, on multi-day rides, I may install a pair of aerobar risers to get into a slightly more upright position.