Always follow the rules...

There is an unofficial rule in bike racing that one should never discuss crashing. It's bad karma. Breaking the rule and talking about crashing inevitably leads to crashing. Point in case, yesterday I wrote about a crash I witnessed at the MBGP and my luck in not having crashed...yet. Today was the Denver Oyster Urban Assault Race, a race I'd been looking forward to since participating in the race last August. I'd talked Emily into racing with me and she'd recruited another friend to round out the 3-woman team. We even had a team training session in preparation!

We were doing great on the 1st 2 legs of the race. We ran to Civic Center Park, the Web Building and Union Station at a good clip. On the bike ride out to the Colorado Athletic Club from REI, we passed a number of teams, and we were sitting pretty in 1st place in the women's division.

This is when karma caught up with me and decided to play dirty. Lousy timing in my opinion. I'd switched the pedals on my road bike that morning from the road to MTB pedals so I could wear my MTB shoes which are easier to walk in. In the process of tightening the pedals, I guess I got a bit distracted, because the pedal just came right off while I was hammering. Or maybe I was just putting out too many watts for the pedal to withstand! Well, either way, down I went. 1st crash of my career (although I probably shouldn't be talking about it...that karma thing again). Luckily I landed on top of my bike, so there's no road rash. Oh, and my elbow and shoulder broke my fall as well.

My teammates scraped me off, put my pedal back on, and off we went again, ignoring the blood trickling down my leg and elbow. But as we made our way to Chipotle, the next checkpoint, I soon realized I couldn't put weight on my right arm, which is not so condusive for riding a bike. Emily saved the day and called her husband Chris to come pick me up and drive me back to the race headquarters as Emily and MJ made the lonely wet trip back on their bikes. So our race was over much sooner than we'd have liked. The worst consequence is that MJ and Emily didn't get to experience the Oyster in full.

Oh, and the unofficial diagnosis is a separated shoulder. But I think the bike is unharmed!






Can't start a race without first having your Starbucks caffeine fix.











Team Dope Divas was all smiles before the race.
















We weren't smiling so much after this.

But I did win something...the prize for the most stupid crash of the day. I beat out another guy who crashed and had his teammate roll his bike over top of him. Guess that's something.



Lesson(s) learned today = always follow the rules, even the unspoken ones; and always tighten (and double-check) your pedals