I thought this next post would be about last Friday night, my first stint at racing Pro/Cat.1 at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome. It was super fun, but instead, let me tell you about the next day... not much fun but an incredible story.
BOOM. That's one way to describe it... slamming into the side of a car at 35 mph.
It was a sunny afternoon in Philadelphia last Saturday; my girlfriend Mary and I planned on going to the Marietta criterium but we got stuck in a traffic jam on the way there so just decided to bag the race and spend the afternoon hanging out in Philly. There was a jazz concert at the Mann Music Center so we figured a cruise on the motorcycle followed by the concert later.
We put on the sunscreen and left Manayunk for what should've been a great cruise on a perfect day. But as we entered a dangerous 'S' turn at the western end of Kelly Drive (Kelly Drive is 2 lanes in each direction with no median; anyone from Philly knows the bad 'S' turn) a junky Toyota Corolla came barreling past us in the left lane and ruined our perfect day. Rounding the left curve, the car started to fish-tail, veering into the right lane just feet in front of my motorcycle. The driver lost control and fish-tailed in the other direction and before you know it, they were spinning out of control. The car spun around back into the right lane, hit the barrier on the side of the road and came to a complete stop right in front of us. I was already braking hard but it was too late, an impact was unavoidable.
The second or two of screeching towards that crashed car seemed like an eternity. I could hear Mary screaming as she tightened her arms around my waist. I saw the cars whizzing by in the opposite direction and envisioned our bodies being catapulted into the oncoming traffic. I held onto the handlebars as tight as possible and squeezed my legs against the motorcycle... my only thought was that I had to prevent us from being thrown too far from the motorcycle.
BOOM. The rest of this ordeal is a blurry memory that I hope to soon forget.
I'm not really sure exactly what happened next, but we didn't get launched. Mary slammed over me, hit the roof of the car head-on and was thrown to the ground. I held onto the motorcycle and bounced into the car head first and then rolled onto the ground. Now get this... Mary is truly amazing. She got up, dusted herself off and immediately started taking care of me. I was on the ground screaming in agony; I'd taken most of the force of the impact directly into my groin area and had a large hematoma in the lower abdomen just above my crotch. By the time the ambulance got us to the ER, my blood pressure was dropping and there was internal bleeding which they feared was caused by a broken hip and ruptured artery. But after CT scans and X-rays and a very painful catheter inserted up my you-know-what (no, not my ass) the only serious injury I suffered was a grossly misplaced testicle. That lump in my abdomen wasn't only a hematoma, it was also my left nut. Mary suffered the world's biggest headache but her CT scan came out OK and she was released from the ER while the doctors were still shaking their heads in disbelief.
After four groggy days confined to a hospital bed, I finally had surgery on Wednesday and everything was put back where it belongs. I was discharged from the hospital on Thursday night and am now back home in Manayunk.
The doctors say that it'll be at least a month before I can get back on the bike so don't expect much from this site for the next few weeks. I want to thank everyone that wished me well last week and let you all know that I am one of the luckiest guys alive... not only because I survived this little brush with disaster, but because I had Mary, healthy and full of smiles, there by my side to get me through this whole mess. Thanks Mary, I love ya' girl!
June 18, 2002 - Housatonic Hills Road Race - Report by Alan Atwood
83 miles, 3 laps on a 27 mile loop with a hilltop finish. Right from the get-go one rider went clear and gained about 45 seconds on the field. 2 others bridged up about 10 miles into the race, and 6 others bridged up at 15 miles to form the winning move of 9. In it were Jonathan Hamblin and Matt Svatek of Cannondale/Wheelworks, Kurt Hackler of CCB/Volkswagen, Charlie Issendorf of G.S. Mengoni, Todd Herriott of CRCA/Think, Eugene Boronow of CRCA/SBCG, Alec Donahue of Northampton Cycling, and Billy Innes and Nat Faulkner of Kissena. They pretty much maintained a 2-3 minute gap for the entire race.
Things were status-quo until about 10 miles to go, when everything started to explode at both ends of the race. Up front, Jon Hamblin made a killer move and wound up riding away solo for a 3 1/2 minute win. Back in the peloton, a group of 2 including Mike Barton (Sunapee/Banagan's) took a flyer and had a good 30 seconds on the field. A group of 4 formed behind Barton's group, including Fuji's Tyler Wren. When Barton fell off the pace, Wren turned the jets on and overtook everyone up the final climb for 10th overall. Results here.
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June 17, 2002 - Goooooooooaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllll!
It's time for World Cup action... 2:30AM and Team USA just scored against the undefeated Mexicans! Adios amigos - we're going to the next round.
Ok race fans, time to catch up on this week's events. Forget about the US Pro pics for a few more days; let's look back to last Tuesday's track racing. The night's feature event was the 10 mile record attempt race. We were anxious to break the old record held by Chip Berezney and even had to restart after our rolling start got rolling a bit too fast. Everyone (well, almost everyone) worked well and the race was like a 10-man pursuit for the most part. Thanks to a few guys swinging up early in the final laps, I found myself at the front with just over one lap to go. Oh well, you gotta' lead it out at that point. Eric Ragot sat on perfectly and got by me in the final meters with Randy Smargiassi finishing third. So as all three of us celebrated our final Tuesday night race before upgrading to the Friday night ranks, Dan Mowdy announced that we broke the record! Congrats to Eric for getting his name in the velo's history books and also for crediting everybody else for the record breaking pace. Friday night, here we come. (knees rattling)
Saturday saw the Lebanon circuit race; it would prove to be 50 miles of rain and pain for most. The race started out slow but got fast, fast, as everyone wanted to be near the front in case it started raining. Ouch, pothole. Shit, there goes my water bottle... 45 miles to go - half a water bottle left. Anyone else would've learned their lesson at Mt. Joy and gotten a new bottle cage. Not me. Well, the rain came and slowed us down for a few laps but with 15 miles left the roads were mostly dry. Joe Papp and Steve Speaks got off the front late and stayed out there long enough to make it look like a race for third but going into the final laps everyone was back together. Everyone but me; I bonked hard w/ 5 to go and practically got dropped twice. I desperately needed that case of Red Bull I won earlier in the race. The final lap was more about dodging crashes than it was about sprinting... the finishing order was pretty much set with three turns to go after everyone snuck around a crash that included Jeremy Miller. A few riders moved up after Trevor Matuylis laid it down in the final turn; I was lucky (?) enough to be right behind him so I have an excuse for only finishing 13th. Papp came around his teammate for the win and Speaks finished in third. I was in a bonk-induced daze and forgot to get results but here's what I can remember.
In addition to the win, Joe Papp earned the "Too Much Testosterone" award for his little bout of road rage towards Josiah Ng in the middle of the peloton. He was so hell-bent on hooking the crap out of Ng that he failed to realize there was a field of riders ready to pound him for almost causing about five pile-ups. Honorable mention goes to John Delong; he swept a little too agressively and crossed my wheel, practically making me hit the deck. When I went by him yelling about it, this idiot's best apology was to chase me down and throw a wild hook in front of the entire field. He should've saved his energy b/c he didn't have enough gas to finish the race after that.
Sunday's Cargas criterium was weird. One of the Collavita guys -I think it was Gustavo Artacho - went off early and had four others working with him. Todd Yezefski and I chased hard but I was hurting so dropped back once we were within 10 seconds and three of the breakaway riders came back to us. I'm not really sure how it happened but suddenly there was a really big group off the front. Seemed like several small attacks shattered the field and before you know it, there were maybe 25 riders up the road and about 30 riders in the back. I was in the field and we got pulled with about 10 laps to go; it was hilarious watching at least 12 guys sprint their asses off for... 25th place? Bragging rights, I guess. I was content with the sweet Limar helmet I won earlier in the race.
Up front, triathlete-turned-roadie Rob Hacker went for a gutsy flyer with two laps to go but in the end, Dean Rittenhouse took the win over Artacho and Hacker held on for third. The rest of the best...
Oh yeah, almost forgot. Apparently some readers actually believed I raked in big $$$ last Tuesday for winning the MARS. Hello, $7,000 on a Tuesday night? That was a J-O-K-E! Don't believe everything you read, especially here.
June 09, 2002 - Walters wins - Postal's Chann McRae is US Pro Champion.
Sorry, our surprises never came yesterday... very crazy day. No pictures from today's race yet b/c my digital camera sucks. Check back tomorrow, some will be posted along with some video clips.
June 06, 2002 - Tuesday Night Racing - Don't Win or You Lose.
The scenario: if you win, you lose your prize money. Say whaaaa?
Yeah, I found out from the velodrome staff (Nancy) that I would forfeit any prize money from the Mid-Atlantic Race Series (MARS) if I upgraded to Friday night racing before next Tuesday, the last event of the series. So if I want to win, I have to lose? Cool! I went into the evening w/ 17 points and 21 points is the automatic upgrade... so I just couldn't win more than 3 points. Better yet, it was mathematically impossible for anyone else to win the MARS series so all I had to do was lose tonight in order to collect the $7,000 first prize next week.
Pulled my rear wheel at the start of the Chariot race so no points there. I farted around until the final event and then figured I'd race for 2nd or 3rd place (a win meant 5 points and an automatic upgrade.) I attacked from the gun; Nathan Rouse and Eric Ragot came too. I just kinda' let those two do their TT thing and before you know it, we lapped the field in 7 laps. Wow, that was fast - thanks Amoroso's.
With about 10 laps to go, Rouse was off the front again and I was content to let him win. Nobody else had lapped the field but us so I was guaranteed 3rd place. But then Ragot attacked me with two to go so I reeled him in, finished 2nd and earned 3 points. No upgrade, I win the money, mission accomplished.
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