By now most local racers have heard, the Carter Lake Road Race is cancelled for 2006. To my best knowledge, Grand Valley will now be Senior State Roads. As a board member this was probably the hardest decision I've had to make yet. I could not vote to cancel until I went to the Lake on Saturday the 12th to see for myself what the traffic would be like on a sunny weekend morning in mid-summer. In my 16 years of riding I have never been up there on a summer weekend. I have no exact reason why that is but my best guess is just plain old common sense. Big trucks towing boats on narrow roads is just a bad thing to combine with cycling.
The Carter race course was a challenge for officials when it was held in April. On any given weekend day in April you could find a handful of boats on the lake. On Saturday I counted 80 on the northern half of the lake alone. I sat at the proposed finish like and counted 39 vehicles pass by in 20 minutes. About 40% of that were vehicles with boats. The bottom line is that having a race on summer Saturday would cause great traffic delays for people going to and from the lake. For the most part, delays lead to anger and frustration. Combine that with a VERY large number of racers who have tuned out traffic because they are tuned into racing and you get a recipe for disaster. It's a recipe that I cannot support, hence my vote to cancel the race.
Hope to see you on the bike in another few weeks.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Learning
My road rash is healed except for the occasional attack of itching. I've discovered some interesting things having both hands casted.
1. I can type but it's slow and full of typos. The worst part is it's not that much slower than before.
2. If you thought my handwriting was bad before, you should see it now!
3. My left hand has the most movement but since I can't make my thumb and index finger meet I've developed a mean CLAW between my index finger and middle finger.
4. You learn 3 real fast when it's the only way get food in your mouth.
5. It was a little harder for my casted left hand to to learn that other daily activity involving digestion.
6. Riding the bus is actually pretty cool.
I got my office all moved into my new space, look for more details in a later post.
1. I can type but it's slow and full of typos. The worst part is it's not that much slower than before.
2. If you thought my handwriting was bad before, you should see it now!
3. My left hand has the most movement but since I can't make my thumb and index finger meet I've developed a mean CLAW between my index finger and middle finger.
4. You learn 3 real fast when it's the only way get food in your mouth.
5. It was a little harder for my casted left hand to to learn that other daily activity involving digestion.
6. Riding the bus is actually pretty cool.
I got my office all moved into my new space, look for more details in a later post.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Jon's 06 road season = over
the trip to the orthopedist today did not produce the results I wanted. I went in thinking I would get the standard 4-6 week healing time. Luckily this will hold true for my left hand, but not my right. Now they think my right hand might need surgery and will definitely need 10-12 weeks (surgery or not). Dang man, that's 3 months!?!? Oh well looks like I'll be doing some hiking to try get fit for cross. For now I just want my road rash to stop oozing. Oh yeah, the fun never ends, since I'm the type of guy who likes a challenge, the Dr and Nurse decided that a short cast was just to sissy for my right hand. Instead I got a manly man cast. If you thought I was scrawny before, wait until you see what my right arm looks like after 3 months in this bad boy:
Friday, June 30, 2006
It's not fun.
It's just not good when you start out from a stoplight next to a nice big protective truck, only to have the truck accelerate out ahead of a mini-van blowing through a REALLY red light. I was wondering why he had just hit the gas so hard and as I looked to my left past the trucks rear bumper I saw why. The mini van was a whopping 2-3 feet away from me going about 30 mph. I remember thinking "this is going to hurt". BANG- my bike and leg hit the bumper, I roll over onto the hood and then proceed to bounce off in a diagonal direction. I fly a few feet through the air (distinctly like hitting a big jump on skis but WAY off balance). I landed on my left hip bone and slid a few feet to a stop. My bike flew a few feet further. I looked over and was looking at the mini-vans rear wheel.
As I came to a stop I remember thinking, "Wow, that wasn't that bad!" I had a bunch of road rash, my hip looked pretty nasty and my left thumb hurt like hell. It was only later that night when I was sitting in the ER did my wrist start to hurt even though I was on pain killers already. They took a TON of x-rays (I was in the room for over an hour). Everything looked pretty intact except for my right wrist and my left thumb. Both of those are in splints until I go see the orthopedic surgeon on Monday. They thumb might need some repair work.
The good new came the next morning when I discovered I could wipe my own rear end still. Beth was literally jumping for joy over that one. I'm rolling along pretty good for a guy without the use of his thumbs. I can ride the trainer but the sweat breaks down the splints, not the best thing for me to do.
My parents are coming up to help me move and put the finishing touches on the new office. Look for updates on my recovery and the new place soon!
As I came to a stop I remember thinking, "Wow, that wasn't that bad!" I had a bunch of road rash, my hip looked pretty nasty and my left thumb hurt like hell. It was only later that night when I was sitting in the ER did my wrist start to hurt even though I was on pain killers already. They took a TON of x-rays (I was in the room for over an hour). Everything looked pretty intact except for my right wrist and my left thumb. Both of those are in splints until I go see the orthopedic surgeon on Monday. They thumb might need some repair work.
The good new came the next morning when I discovered I could wipe my own rear end still. Beth was literally jumping for joy over that one. I'm rolling along pretty good for a guy without the use of his thumbs. I can ride the trainer but the sweat breaks down the splints, not the best thing for me to do.
My parents are coming up to help me move and put the finishing touches on the new office. Look for updates on my recovery and the new place soon!
June
June was OK. Beth and I went to visit family in Houston after Hood and I was busy getting my new office remodeled.
Racing was marginal at best. We missed the move at Hugo and despite a long and hard chase we didn't even crack the top ten. Prom park didn't go much better, Chuck and Alan got out manuvered by GS Ciao.
Dead Dog was cool with Christian on FIRE. I ended up 6th, through technicalities and then moved up to 4th through even more technicalities. Wierd race in terms of guy breaking rules.
That racing stuff was all fun and games until tuesday when BANG I got smacked by a car heading out of town.
Racing was marginal at best. We missed the move at Hugo and despite a long and hard chase we didn't even crack the top ten. Prom park didn't go much better, Chuck and Alan got out manuvered by GS Ciao.
Dead Dog was cool with Christian on FIRE. I ended up 6th, through technicalities and then moved up to 4th through even more technicalities. Wierd race in terms of guy breaking rules.
That racing stuff was all fun and games until tuesday when BANG I got smacked by a car heading out of town.
Mt Hood Wrap Up
Considering it was almost a month ago I've decided to do wrap up on Mt. Hood. Due to many recent developments it's probably the last NRC race I will ever travel to. At Hood:
I ruined a pair of shorts, jersey and socks due to lack of a good washing machine.
The accompanying dryer literally ATE my shoe covers and another jersey.
We made a whopping $000,000.00 in prize money.
I blew around $800 on getting there, rental car, housing, entry fee and various crap.
It was ALMOST all worth it for this attack on the final climb of the last day (after flatting on the first climb):
I ruined a pair of shorts, jersey and socks due to lack of a good washing machine.
The accompanying dryer literally ATE my shoe covers and another jersey.
We made a whopping $000,000.00 in prize money.
I blew around $800 on getting there, rental car, housing, entry fee and various crap.
It was ALMOST all worth it for this attack on the final climb of the last day (after flatting on the first climb):
Friday, June 02, 2006
Lookin purty out now
But it sure wasn't this morning when we were racing. Yesterday was cool except the downhill finish that strangely reminded me of last year's Tour of Utah stage that ended up almost killing a fellow racer in a 40mph finish line crash. It rained the last half lap which added to the fear factor.
Today was wet, kinda cold and a bit lame. I'm always amazed how many guys are afraid to race when a team like Health Net is riding tempo. They only have 2 guys working and if several guy hit it hard later in the race it would really spic up the race. Unfortunately, everyone seems content to see how well they can follow the top 5 guys at the finish.
I tired to spice it up a bit with one lap to go but there was a serious lack of participation from other teams so I ended up burning the matches I needed for the finish. Baker was up there so that worked out well. CC Rider was in the break until 1 lap to go and was again living up to his reputation as an early break specialist in road races. I'm really hoping it will pay off soon with a win at a mtn race like this.
Baker's whipping up a mean smelling dinner, the boy can ride AND cook. He's the real deal.
Today was wet, kinda cold and a bit lame. I'm always amazed how many guys are afraid to race when a team like Health Net is riding tempo. They only have 2 guys working and if several guy hit it hard later in the race it would really spic up the race. Unfortunately, everyone seems content to see how well they can follow the top 5 guys at the finish.
I tired to spice it up a bit with one lap to go but there was a serious lack of participation from other teams so I ended up burning the matches I needed for the finish. Baker was up there so that worked out well. CC Rider was in the break until 1 lap to go and was again living up to his reputation as an early break specialist in road races. I'm really hoping it will pay off soon with a win at a mtn race like this.
Baker's whipping up a mean smelling dinner, the boy can ride AND cook. He's the real deal.
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