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| Post Interview at Bonelli |
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| Orange Groves in Redlands |
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| The after shot! |
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| Jack Host House Dog :) |
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| men's short track race |
I traveled out to California to hit the next two races on the US Pro Cup Series. Thanks to All of the Wonderful Support of friends, Fans and Sponsors, Orbea-USA , Colonels Bicylces who made this trip possible for me to attend.
The Racing Post. US one of my biggest fans whom offered a year's free subscription for those that donate 100.00 ! Wow! Not only do you get to help a Pro but you get a great Racing Magazine delivered to your home for free! I started a Rallyme fund. It's a crowd funding website where people can donate to athletes to help them reach their goals.
Bonelli State Park located in San Dimas,CA. My trip began early matter of a fact I had a 4:00 a.m taxi Ride to the airport which allowed me to be an hour early for my flight. I arrived at LAX at 7:35 a.m. unfortunately My bike did not arrive with me. I was informed it would be on a later flight coming in at 3:30 in the afternoon. This had me hanging out in LA for a while. I did not want to leave with out my bike. As soon as my bike arrived at the airport I headed over to Bonelli to pre ride the course. I was able to make it just in time to quickly build my bike and get a quick lap in . Thankfully the UCI course is quite short. There was a hand made rock garden added to the loop this year that I needed to see before tomorrows race. I found the great line and had a clean pre ride.
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| In and Out Burger Truck At the Race! |
I kept in contact with the leaders over the top and on the back side through the technical descent. I started to become quite gassed at this point. I was feeling my legs and I tried to keep going. The climbs became steeper and longer .
Then finally the descent whipping throughout the single track . You could carry your momentum around and up to the A-line or the B-line option. The B-line easier but a little longer. The A-line was a shorter route however, a hairy section. You had off camber logs on one side of this ramp separated by a two by four and small boulders on the right followed by rocks and off centered logs then a switch back descent over logs. As I made my approach to the A-line , I increased my cadence and lifted my front end up over onto the two by four and I almost rode it all out and the bike dropped down onto the rocks, I made it through. As I approached the switchback log section I hear, "rider down"shoot. I was already in motion when two other girls had crashed in front of me then I go down. My bike got caught into the tape on the inside. I was fine, untangled my bike and proceeded. I was doing okay. I think I had fallen into 8th or 9th place by this time.
I proceeded on to the next lap. This is where it got pretty ugly for me. As I hit the A-line section again. I make the first section just fine, the spectators are all cheering, for a brief moment in time I felt like a rock star. Then the switch back log descent, my handle bar hit the post that was holding the tape on the far right side causing my front wheel to abruptly turn sideways as I was descending causing me to flip over my handlebars smacked down into the dirt.
Many people rushed over to make sure I was okay. I quickly jumped up and thought ahh.. my hands. I landed on my left shoulder with both of my hands underneath me. I must have bent my fingers and hand back .
I got back onto the bike and continued very slowly. I started to wonder if I had broken my collar bone. It hurt so much to pull up on the bars . I began to lose a lot of power as my speed began to crawl. I continued and came around on the next lap with having the option again of the A-line or the B-line. I chose that A-line again. Pure determination I was going to ride this damn thing and do it clean. Sure enough I did just that. I won't lie I was in pain. As the next time around to the start finish area I was pulled. I went straight over to the medic tent. The emt's and race site medic was pretty adamant about me going to the hospital. My first thought was .. I have another race tomorrow, and the fact that I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on x-rays. I wasn't going to the hospital to only be told that it wasn't a good idea to race my bike. But I kept that to myself.
After awhile of siting and icing my wounds . I was walked back to my car and the crew took my bike and put into my car for me.
I sat in the car continuing to ice and had some lunch contemplating on whether I should get back on the bike- I knew I needed to spin my legs out. So sure enough I painfully pulled my bike back out of the car and slowly but surely got back onto the "horse". I spun around for about 30-minutes or so. This was a good feeling for me, I couldn't pick up the front end of the bike but I was spinning .
The next day I decided I would come out to the race early to ride prior to the race just to be certain I could hold the handle bars and assess how I felt .
I didn't have much range of motion in my wrist and I couldn't put any weight down at all. But, I didn't need to do any of that for the short track.
I proceed to line up for the race.
The race would only be 20 minutes long- I could do anything for 20 minutes I thought. Sure enough the race started out fast and furious. The girls were so savvy , I thought I am the crit racer here. I tried to pass on the inside and sure enough they would close me down. Finally the big group had split into many groups and most would get pulled in this short and fast race. The final lap came to, and I knew I had to make my move prior to the small hill . Everyone had the same idea the it was a sprint up that thing. Unfortunately there would be no passing after that. I went up with everyone on the top and not wanting to risk going down I couldn't get around. I ended up in 8th place. A bit disappointed with my result, though I was happy to have raced another day.
Stay Tuned .. for Fontana It's up next.
Meanwhile between races I am on the lovely town of Redlands. Where the famous Redlands Classic kicks off the National Road Racing Circuit.
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