Charm City Cross...

Dear Readers,

Best Heckle of the Weekend...

Warming up Saturday morning, I was riding with Team Director John Lux. I commented to him that a couple of our rivals had mentioned that they have a tough time telling if it's him or me in the group when we are racing.  He sat up looked me in the eye and said, "Crap man, I didn't know I had let myself go that badly. Holy Crap."  

Photo Credit dennis smith (dennisbike)

We both laughed and almost crashed in the warm up.

Charm City Cross

I love Charm City Cross. Always an incredible course with lots of features. Jay Lazar, Kris 'effin Auer and company never fail to layout one of the best courses I believe in the country. This weekend was no different. Five features a lap (planks, stairs, planter, fly over and sand pit) challenge the most technically savvy racers, and lot of rolling hills to favor the riders that have watts to spare. Add this off-camber corner which was super fun both directions and I have named "the perfect corner"

photo credit Adam Erb!

I've referred to Charm City as one of the Monuments of the Mid Atlantic- this weekend further set that as high bar, and high water mark for cross in our region. Event wise, team row was super fun to cheer on racers and race by in your event. The food trucks, cold frothy beverages  and fun setting make the race the total package. Cheers to all of the C3 team for an incredible weekend of racing. WELL DONE! 

Some of the kind folks bringing you Charm City Cross!!!

Strange Saturday

As cross season rolled around this year, Monk had just started riding her cross bike again, and really didn't believe she'd get to race cross this year. Then things started to work out. Her knee was getting stronger and she was doing a great job managing it. She got a couple of races under her belt, and circled Charm City on the calendar. "This is my favorite race. I haven't been able to do it for years. I can't wait" 

This was her Vision Quest.

Saturday came, and the 40+ masters women welcomed her back and she got off to a great start. I was warming up and riding around the course cheering her on. Diane was off to a very good start. I was excited for her.

I had gone to team row and expected to see her...  Her group came by and she wasn't there.  Jen Sears came by and yelled to me, "Diane got hurt on the flyover!" I felt my stomach dropped and I charged over to the flyover. When I got there I saw a woman on the ground with blood all over her face. She was being tended to by the race doctor (go Mike Boss) and  it wasn't Diane. I started to panic as I looked around and couldn't find her.  Someone yelled that she was in the pit. I charged over there to find her being tended to by Jay, JH III, and (I)Paul.  Her hand looked nasty and swollen. 

As I understand it. The woman just in front of her didn't make it up the fly over, she started to slide back down and sat up sliding down, just as Diane was charging up. As the woman slid down the flyover Diane's left hand and shifter went right into her face violently. The woman slumped down and slid to the bottom and Diane grabbed the side railing of the flyover to try and keep from sliding down.

There is a video of the crash that I have seen. I watched it, and shared it with a couple of folks. It's really violent looking. I have since deleted it. Watching that video is not good for my constitution.

As Diane made her way back to the bottom it sounds like someone else hit her, as her rear wheel was knocked totally wonky. She couldn't hold onto the bars, but she explained she thought her hand would loosen up in a few minutes, so she was running to get her pit bike. Thankfully, friends stopped her in the pit. When I saw her hand/wrist I was pretty certain she had a boxer's fracture.

We high-tailed it back to Delaware, and got some X-rays.

ER Waiting room Selfie! 

Thankfully, no broken bones. She got some swelling, and bruised fingers, and she'll loose her fingernail, but she'll be back at it soon enough. Sunday as we were leaving, I watched Diane put her hand on the hood of her bike and see if she could pull it. "Knock it off !" I said to her as we walked out of the garage and headed back to Baltimore. 

Also thankfully, the woman that crashed with Diane is also fine. A slight concussion, a nasty cut, but no stitches, and hopefully she'll be back at in a couple of weeks too.

Couple more thoughts on this:

1. THANKS TO EVERYONE who helped us out. Philly Ciclismo Tent, everyone that stashed our stuff over night. Everyone that emailed, texted and called to check on us. Mama  Lux's cookies were delicious and frankly the only thing that we had to eat until we got home from the ER. The Cross Community can not be beat. We really felt the love Saturday. Thank you! Diane was also super stressed as she was supposed to run the Kid's race both days this weekend. thanks to Erin Wittwer who stepped in an covered on Saturday. Diane was happy to be able to run the kid's race Sunday...

2. Nothing is more awesome than sitting in the waiting room in an ER in a skinsuit. The obvious questions from other people sitting in the waiting room :  Are you a biker? Where's your Bike? Did you ride here?

In my state of concern my emotional intelligence was not at it's highest. It was hard for me to not answer, "No, I'm not a biker at all. I just like spandex. I'm a huge David Lee Roth fan."

sometimes small talk sucks.

And finally I did actually race my bike.

My original plan for the weekend was to race just one day. It's a long season, I'm not chasing the MAC and I want to stay hungry. Part of that is managing my race schedule. I had planned to race Saturday, that didn't happen. Kris 'Effin Auer was kind enough to comp my race for Sunday after how things played out Saturday. I very much appreciated that guesture.

You know I gotta point out here, I raced for Kris 'Effin Auer for 7 years as a member of the C3-Twenty20 team. I never got a comp for the Charm City Race.  First year, on another team and he throws me a comp? I mean, what's it take to get a comp outta that guy? My wife needs to cause utter mayhem and destruction? Jeeze... In all honesty, I really do love that guy, and the gesture was appreciated.

My race went well, it really felt a little anti-climatic after the events of Saturday. I had a 5th row start, and had to claw my way up to my teammates, and my normal group. The Charm City Course Sunday suited my skill set. Lots of on and off the bike, features, and good driving sections. My race went really well. Maybe my best of the year so far. That was a nasty deep field, and I'm happy with how my ride played out.

I should also mention that I had a bit of an altercation with Trevor, who I have great respect for and personally like as a human being. We were both being too aggressive, and at the end of the day, it didn't help either of our races. Masters Racers behaving badly. Thankfully we hugged it out afterwards. I'm a little embarrassed by my actions. I'm glad that's behind us, and I look forward to chasing him again next week.

respect

fatmarc