Finally Happened (Hellbender Report)

So the day started off good. My legs were feeling good and I got a good warm up in before we sat at the line for 30min waiting to start. There was 50+ riders in the cat5 field so it would make for a good race. When the whistle blew I was on the front for the nuetral and pulled with another guy for the first mile or so. I thought I'm not going to have anything left so I dropped back into the middle of the field. It was the most nerve racking peloton I have ever been in granted this is my 11th race. I mean everytime we would slow there was almost a crash, and people were yelling slowing every 30 seconds. Going downhill sucked bad because people were slamming on their brakes and not leaving enough room. At mile 10 of the race all I wanted to do was get to the front and either try attacking or pull the whole damn peloton just so I wouldn't have to be stuck in there with all those people. There was about 20 or so riders left in the group and I could not get to the front for the life of me (yellow line). So finally on a flater section it started to string out a bit and I was able to get up to about the first ten. As I really wanted to be up there because the big climb was coming up anyway. So we started the fast downhill before the start of the climb. I was leaving quite a bit of room between me and the riders in front. As we aproached the bottom of the hill 40+MPH 2 riders went down in front of me I slammed my brakes on, and thought about bunny hopping them. But then I realized that If I didn't clear them I could hurt them and me pretty bad. So I pretty much just plowed into them did a flip over the handlebars hit the right side of my head pretty good and laid on the ground wondering if I had broke anything. The lady in the wheeltruck got out and told me to stop moving, and another rider that wrecked asked me if I was okay. I tore my helmet off let out some groans and started to get up. I was pretty shook up had some scrapes on my knees and tweaked my wrist a little bit. They asked me if I thought anything was broken and I said no. One of the other riders said he was going to continue. I glad he said that cause I had pretty much thrown in the towel by then. So I said I'm going to finish too. I got on my bike started the climb noticed that my front wheel was wobbling and my rear derailer was bent. So I wasn't able to use all My gears. I actually did pretty good up the climb. By this time I had lost about 5-7 minutes on the main field. So I just though well I'm already in pain I may as well just ride as hard as I can to the finish line. I ended up catching a group of 2 and sprinted by them I didn't want to pull them and I didn't want to set on their wheels. I was holding about 21-23MPH avg the rest of the course by myself I felt good. Anways thats about all for the race I hate riding in CAT5 fields. I did drop my bike off at A&B for Charles to look over tommorow. We also though it would be a good idea to go to urgent care just to make sure I didn't have a concussion, the doctor said I was good and told me I was going to be sore for the next couple of days, then I got a tetnis shot because I hadn't had one in about 11 years so I figured what the hell. I am happy that I finished the race. But it's got me thinking is racing really worth the medical, gear, and buttloads of other crap you have to buy. I mean I love cycling because, well, because I love to ride my bike plain and simple. Getting hurt or hurting other people just to get a jersey or a few bucks isn't worth it. I know you can get hurt just as serisly just on a group ride or by yourself, and I know accidents do happen. But some people will do whatever it takes to try in win with no regard for other peoples saftey. The fellow who caused the wreck kept apoligizing to me and I told him not to worry about it that accidents happen. Im glad they were both okay though. But on the climb one of the guys blew a tire half way up so he pretty much blew a fuse after that. I think I may have even placed better this year than last, we will see.