Two Weeks In

    It's been two weeks since my injury so it's time for an update. It's healing nicely and everything is looking good. I have had little pain since the first day. It would have been easy to overdo things with the lack of pain, but the swelling was enough to keep me in check. After a week, the majority of the swelling went away and I could walk normally, but my range of motion was still pretty terrible. I was hoping to be back on the bike by day 10 at the latest, but the swelling was putting way too much stress on the stitches to bend anywhere close to enough to make a full revolution on the bike. I actually popped two stitches on the shallower end of the gash. It wasn't from activity, just from the amount of swelling. I've actually been very easy on the knee and not done anything crazy. I definitely don't want to pull this thing open again and have to start over or risk getting an infection.

We have had a little fun with the knee. The cut kind of looks like jack-o-lantern mouth and I had another cut to form a nose. Couldn't resist adding some eyes.

    Speaking of infection, the worst part of all this has been the antibiotics they put me on. If you want to stop exercise and not gain a single pound, just get on some antibiotics. They made me not want to eat. When I did eat, there is no way I gained anything from it because it did not stay in body long enough for anything to be absorbed. That was a rough week! But there's no infection so it was worth it.

     The stitches came out just before the two week mark. There are two places that are still a little open at the surface, but everything looks good deeper inside the leg. I am still covered with steri-strips to help pull the skin together and relieve some of the stress on the wound. I'll probably be wearing those for a while. It really is in a bad spot being right over the knee joint. Every knee movement stresses that area, and more so with a horizontal gash than the vertical incision you would see with a total knee replacement. That's what I'm used to working with in physical therapy. This horizontal cut has been a learning experience.

     The first try at a ride came last weekend with me just trying to pedal while sitting on the bike inside. I leaned against the wall in the kitchen and tried to make full revolutions. I could only get all the way around going backwards and without shoes. The next day I could go forwards, but still could not tolerate the extra height of the shoe and cleat. I was patient and did not start adjusting my seat height. Today, I was able to start some light exercises and that loosened my knee up enough to put on a shoe. I did 10 minutes on the trainer without shoes, then 20 minutes with shoes. It is still tight inside from the swelling, but riding did not stretch the skin around the cut so it was a good day. Just that little bit of spinning pumped a lot of swelling out of my quad and from inside the knee joint.  It's still sore down deep so I think it will be a while before I'm doing any real riding, but this is a start and I'm really excited about it!

     The support I've had at work has been so different this time compared to any of my past injuries. Usually I'm frustrated because none of my colleagues will help me out, but this time I have been surrounded by a great group. I've been working in Springfield lately and they are a bunch of momma bears up there. They actually care about my well-being. They were the ones that cut out my stitches and have been monitoring the healing every step of the way. I had to skirt around the momma bears initially. I did not tell them when it first happened because I knew they would cancel my patients and send me home from work. While work was uncomfortable at times, it was not slowing my healing and the injury was not impacting my ability to treat patients . Still, I know they would have wanted me to rest, so I just went to work and informed people once they noticed my limp. I've taken advantage of the down time to work more than I normally would and shattered my previous record for total number of PRN hours worked in a month.

     Working more has also helped the time pass more quickly. I would likely have gouged out my eyes by now if it was not for working and our garden. I've spent a lot of hours out in the garden just looking for something to do. Luckily, with a garden there is always something to do. We have been picking peppers and okra by the bowl. Last year, we picked enough of everything to fill one of our large mixing bowls about twice per week. Now, I am picking two large bowls and two medium bowls at least three times per week. It has been crazy at times, but the shelves are filling back up with jars of pickle/pepper mix, pepper relish, salsa and pizza sauce. I finally got to grill a pizza on our new grill this past weekend and it was delicious! We made our own dough, then covered it with Shannon's homemade pizza sauce and added some peppers and basil from the garden. Cheese and a bit of turkey were the only toppings that did not come from our garden.

     One of the challenges we hoped to overcome this year was figuring out how to turn our bell peppers red and yellow. It really is hard to do in the south with all the humidity. Often as the pepper begins to turn, it will start to rot and mold from the moisture. It is also more susceptible to insects and other animals once it changes because it starts to taste sweeter. I can usually keep the animals at bay, but there is nothing you can do about humidity in Tennessee. It's going to come and it's going to be heavy. We were able to turn some peppers after picking, but have not mastered getting big bells to turn on the plant just yet. I do have a few golden bells on the plants now, but they are smaller than I would like. They cayenne's are my favorite because they don't mold and nothing eats them. If only they could all be that easy!

     Besides the garden, I have occupied my time by going out to the Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway in Calvert City, KY. It's a 3/8-mile dirt track next to I-24 just southeast of Paducah. We have driven by it many times, but never seem to have the time to go for a race. We went this past weekend and had a lot of fun. It was the first time I have ever watched anything other than winged sprint cars on a dirt track. And the last time I saw them race was when I was around eight years old. It's a totally different kind of driving as compared to pavement. I enjoyed watching the cars sling dirt 20 feet high in the corners as they slid by with the gas wide-open. We left with a coating of dirt on us from the dust that was kicked up. The body and chassis on a dirt car have much more movement in them than a pavement car. There were times in the corners where the left front tire was not even on the ground. It was a smaller turnout than what they normally have up there as far as cars and spectators, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. I'm actually glad there were few spectators. I don't think I could have bent my knee enough to sit in a crowded grandstand. There were two classes that had full fields and they put on a great show under the lights in the Main Events. I could totally get into dirt track racing. Then again, I just like racing no matter what kind it is. I think I would race a shopping cart if there were races for them. It's in my blood I guess. NASCAR has even been dabbling with dirt races in recent years with the Camping World Truck Series. They actually raced the dirt at Eldora Speedway just last week. It was a great race with an awesome finish, which you can see here.

Heat races

     My parents met us at the track and added to the fun evening. My Dad was bringing up old embarrassing stories, which is normal for him. He couldn't seem to remember to take his ear plugs out between races so he shared his stories with everyone in the grandstands this time. And let them know how the pizza we ate was affecting his stomach and how it was going to be a long ride home. Even when you're 29 your parents can still embarrass you. 

Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway

Saturday night dirt track racing

Video: Clips from the Open Wheel Modified races at Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway on July 25

     I also had plenty of time to watch the Tour de France this year. It was a good Tour overall. I'm not a Froome fan, but I have a lot of respect for his performances and the amount of time the guy trains to be in that good of shape. I hated to see that our sport is still overshadowed by doping. We all knew it was, but to see people on the side of the road yelling at Froome was terrible. And the guys that spit on him and threw a cup of urine at him were ridiculous. Nobody should ever be spit on or have urine thrown at them, even if they did dope. I was hoping to see some story where other fans beat up those guys, but I haven't heard anything about it yet. It's really sad now that winning automatically places you under suspicion. I am glad that nobody punched him or knocked him down. That has happened before. Eddy Merckx was punched in the 1975 Tour. As a rider, sometimes it is scary to get so close to people. Most of the people I pass are behind a barrier and have no idea who I am. I can't imagine being so close to people that are running crazy in the street and some of them despise you.

     The best part about the Tour for me was following the Orica-GreenEDGE Cycling Team. I really like that team. They're mostly a bunch of English-speaking riders with Aussie management and Aussie attitude. They know how to race hard and also how to have fun. I never see them getting mad at each other or putting too much pressure on a rider. If I ever rode at that level, I would hope to be on their team. They do videos each day called "Backstage Pass," where they go behind the scenes with the team before, during and after the race, and also include some extras with the fans, mechanics and even the team chef. You can watch the Backstage Pass videos here. My favorite one from this year is from Stage 10 and it's posted below. It's my favorite only because of the Hulk Hogan look-alike they found on one of the mountains. America!
   

Orica-GreenEDGE Backstage Pass - Stage 10

   
     It was also good to see cameras being used on the bikes this year. The television commentators and teams keep referring to the onboard cameras as "new technology" and a "new concept." That always makes me laugh because cameras have been on bikes for years. GoPro has been around for several years now. I have had mine on my bike since 2011. Before GoPro, there were several other companies with working cameras on the market. I raced for FlyCamOne at Dirt, Sweat & Gears back in 2009. FlyCamOne was a small helmet cam that did a pretty good job capturing race footage. I still have it. CamOneTec actually makes a camera now very similar to the GoPro Hero, they just don't market it as heavily as GoPro. Technology has come a long way since the first cameras, but it is far from a new concept. Riders like Sven Nys have been practically begging the UCI to use onboard cameras in cyclocross for several years now. The UCI is behind the times and trying to make a big deal out of finally deciding to get with the program. The GoPros got excellent footage from every stage of this year's Tour, capturing everything from crashes and scary-fast mountain descents to insane fans on Alpe d'Huez and even a fly-over from the French Air Force on the Champs-Elysees. Even the mechanics wore cameras on several stages. Watch some of the videos posted by the Velon CC group here. A best-of video from the Tour de France is posted below.

Best of the Tour from onboard cameras

     Shannon and I did a fantasy game for the Tour de France. She totally kicked my butt! I guess she does listen to some of my race chatter around the house. She not only picked good riders, but also had good reasons for picking them. She got off to an early lead with having Fabian Cancellara and Tom Dumoulin on her team, and I was never able to close the gap. We stayed basically the same gap apart from the end of Stage 4 to the finish. She also had Peter Sagan which really is what won her the game. I picked Mark Cavendish as my sprinter and he did not do as well as in years past.

     I want to end by thanking everyone for all the well-wishes. I am happy to be recovering well and so, so grateful to have not damaged anything else in my knee. The recovery could have been much longer, or even not at all. I may not get to finish my season like I hoped, but I will be back!

Raccoon Mountain Adventure

     After Indy, I shifted gears to the mountain bike to get ready for the Raccoon Mountain Enduro and Super D races in Chattanooga, TN. This was to be my first enduro and I planned on making my debut a good one. I was excited to try enduro as it is a discipline I think I can really excel at. It's a combo of skills and fitness, not just fitness like most XC events focus on. It would also be my first Super D in a few years, another discipline I have always done well at, hence my nickname.

    I have not spent much time on my mountain bike this year due to weather, the gastroc injury and time constraints, so I was a bit nervous as to my comfort level on the tougher technical sections both courses would feature. We had planned a pre-ride trip to Raccoon Mountain on July 3 that was rained out. Every ride I planned at home was also met with terrible weather. I got in my first ride on the Remedy since early-December the day after Indy Crit. It was a play ride at home, hitting the jumps and drops just to get my nerve back and get the bike set up properly. I had not ridden the Remedy since I rebuilt the bushings and bearings over the winter. The ride was successful and I surprised myself by how good I was riding the big features. Shannon was riding well too, tackling the giant wooden tabletop for the first time. I think her good riding rubbed off on me!

     We finally made it to Raccoon on Tuesday afternoon of this week. I was off work and Shannon got off at noon. We planned to ride a loop around the reservoir together, then I would do shuttle runs down the mountain until dark on the High Voltage and Live Wire trails to prepare for the weekend. Both of those trails have been built since the last time I rode here.

Reservoir overlook atop Raccoon Mountain

     The weather was hot, but beautiful when we arrived. Some dark clouds began to roll in as we started the ride and it was shortly followed by the booms of thunder in the distance. The storms stayed in the river gorge and went north of the mountain. We stayed dry, but could see from the overlooks that all points north were getting slammed with heavy rain. We met a local rider at the East Overlook and chatted with him for a few minutes. He knew a lot about the courses for the enduro and gave me a few hints on what I should be riding. He also checked the radar on his phone and assured us the weather would stay north and east of us. It looked like we would surely get in a dry ride.

     Along our route around the reservoir, I veered off into the technical Chunky trail and pre-rode the course for Stage 3 of the Enduro. This stage had a lot of rocks in the Chunky section, but also contained some fast singletrack and a lot more pedaling than I was expecting. For those of you who do not know much about an enduro, it is made up of several timed stages inside of a big ride. Everyone rides the same course. You are timed only on certain sections of the course, called stages, which are usually more downhill than up. In between stages, you only have a certain amount of time to get to the start of the next stage. The time allowed gives you ample recovery, but it's not enough time to let you dilly-dally around either. At most enduros, you do not know the course prior to the start of each stage. This format rewards those who can read the trail well. But not all venues have enough trails to make that possible. The Raccoon Mountain Enduro would be 25-28 miles in length with four timed stages. The first two stages would be down the 5.5-mile Live Wire trail. Stage 3 was to be on one of the lines through Chunky, then going by the Switchyard and onto part of the Small Intestine trail. The final stage would be down High Voltage. We would have to climb the mountain twice between stages, so it would take some legs to get through the race, not just skills. As for the Super D, it would be 5.5 miles long going all the way down the Live Wire trail to the boat ramp at the bottom of the mountain. So, learning Live Wire would be very beneficial as it made up half of the timed stages in the Enduro and was the Super D course.

     The thunder stalked us and began to get louder as we started the long climb up Grindstone Ridge. As we neared the top, the rain came, followed by strong wind and lightning. The storm had finally topped the mountain. So much for our dry ride.

Shannon riding the Switchyard trail

    It got so dark we could barely see the trail and were forced to stop. Trees were snapping with the wind and the lightning was striking very near us. I began to look for shelter and quickly saw a small cave overhang up the hill. We dropped our bikes on the side of the trail and ran for cover. The cave was small. We couldn't sit up straight without bumping our heads. It was a tight squeeze, but at least we were safe and mostly dry. We stayed in the cave for a good 30 minutes watching the storm thrash the mountain. At one point I thought I heard tornado sirens wailing from the Lookout Mountain area.

Squeezed in the cave waiting out the storm

Video: Our view from the cave as the storm moved away

It was so dark I could barely see Shannon coming down the trail. It was like midnight at 5pm!

     Finally, the winds died down and the lightning ceased. It continued to rain and was super dark in the woods, but we began working our way down the ridge. Thunder could be heard in the distance as another storm approached from the same direction. We tried to seek shelter at the visitor center, but it was closed for construction. They had so much orange fencing up that we couldn't even get over to the building to find an overhang. We crouched under some trees until the lightning passed by, then made a break for it on the road. The rain beat us as we rode across the giant reservoir dam towards Laurel Point. Heavy fog rolled across the mountain and made it feel as if we were riding inside a cloud. Of course, the rain stopped just as we reached the car. I was surprised to see another car in the parking lot. Someone else had been stuck out there too.

     With the rain ending and the trail draining quickly, I decided to go ahead with my pre-ride. This was my only chance to see High Voltage and Live Wire, so I decided to do one run down each of them. There was a chance of rain in the forecast for the weekend, so there was a chance the trails would be in similar condition to this in the race. I went for High Voltage first since it was closer to where we parked and was supposed to be the more technical and dangerous of the two trails. It was the one everybody said I "must see" before hitting it at race speed. All the talk actually had me a little nervous. I had heard it was treacherous in spots with some high penalties for mistakes, especially near the top where there were some very tight switchbacks.

     High Voltage was not at all what I was thinking. The switchbacks at the start of the trail are challenging, but I did not find them dangerous and the exposure I had heard about was not that bad. I actually felt much safer on this descent than on the Thunder Rock Express on the Tanasi Trails near Ocoee, TN. Thunder Rock has several small jumps you want to get air on, but can't because they are followed by sharp turns that have a huge cliff on the outside of the turn. There is no blowing a turn on Thunder Rock....unless you want to die. I found all the High Voltage jumps could be hit at full speed and the sharp turns were visible in time to get things slowed down. I was having a ton of fun and again surprised myself by how fast I was going. It was wet, but not very slick with the fast-draining rocky soil. I had on a new rear tire on, a more aggressive 2.35" Minion, which was providing excellent traction. I had a faster rolling 2.35" Larsen TT on the front. Traction was fine with the Larsen, but on the faster sections I could feel it flexing a lot  and even slammed the rim a few times on roots. I decided I would put a Minion on the front for the race.

     Towards the bottom of the trail it begins to flatten out and has some false-flat drags. It became apparent that this stage of the enduro would be won with pedaling. I was really starting to like this stage! I knew I could fly at the top, and if I paced myself right I could smash these pedaling sections at the end with my roadie legs. Both stages I had ridden thus far really played into my favor with the amount of pedaling available. I was probably riding with a big smile on my face.

     Then everything changed in a flash. I went into a gentle right-hand turn with a big berm and the front wheel got out from under me before I could blink an eye. I was immediately on the ground sliding through the turn. It was like ice! My right leg got pinned between my top tube and my handlebar as I slid. The slick trail kept me sliding and the berm held me in the trail. I slid all the way through the turn like a bobsled. I hit pretty hard. My right leg hurt very deeply. I squirmed in the mud for a minute, then wrestled with my bike to get my leg unpinned. Once free, I hopped up to try to walk off the pain. It was a minute before I looked down at my knee. When I did, I could see an enormous amount of blood pouring down my right shin. I could see a large gash over my patella with blood pumping out from between the gobs of mud. It looked like I was going to need some stitches which made me get a little mad at myself. I wasn't even pushing it hard and now I'm going to the dang ER! It was just a simple little fall. But it's the little ones that always seem to do the most damage. My leg still hurt around the tibial plateau. I could barely put weight on it and was worried I had a small fracture. The chain was all wrapped all around the front derailleur and it took some struggling to get it straight. I checked my leg out a little better as I remounted the bike. There was still a lot of blood coming out and it was starting to get scary. I pinched my knee together with my muddy hand and started to ride out with one leg. I thought about calling Shannon, but did not see that would help. If she came in to get me I was still going to have to limp out with her help so I might as well get moving now and get to the car quick to stop the bleeding.

     I had to ride about 10 minutes to get to the boat ramp where Shannon was waiting. I was not moving very fast with just one leg pushing over the pedals. Of course, there were lots of rocky sections and even some uphill left to ride. I rode a lot of things, but had to get off on some of the ups and drag my right leg behind me as I hiked. I grunted my way out to the car and could see the horror on Shannon's face as I came out covered in blood. She poured water on my knee to halfway clean the wound and get all the mud off my legs, but I was scared to let go of the wound. It was bigger than I initially thought. There was no doubt I was getting stitches tonight. We tied a sweatshirt around the wound and got me into some cleaner clothes. Then we called our friend Tavis, who went to school at UT-Chattanooga, to ask him where the closest hospital was.

     Tavis guided us to Erlanger Hospital in downtown Chattanooga. The ER was very busy. Apparently, Erlanger is the main trauma and cardiac center of Chattanooga. There were plenty of car accidents coming in from rush hour traffic and from the storm, not to mention a lot of heart attacks and even a few possible strokes. I hardly felt like I should be in line with these people. We had my bleeding controlled so I was in no real danger anymore. Even the deep ache had subsided and I was no longer worried about a fracture. We asked if there was a walk-in clinic somewhere in town that could just stitch me up, but the staff was not helpful. They were too busy to even look at me. I asked for gause as blood was still running down my leg and about to get in the floor. It was a chore for them to even get me a gause pad. I thought fine, I'll bleed all over your floor if you don't care. Nobody even looked at the wound until I was finally called back after waiting for an hour. Good thing the sweatshirt had slowed the bleeding considering how much I had lost on the trail. Even when they took my vitals, they were too busy to really tend to me and I wound up taking my own blood pressure, heart rate and temperature. It was kind of crazy. How accurate can your blood pressure reading be when you took it yourself while standing up?! I would have said they were rude, but I will cut them some slack because they were very busy. I have been busy at work and I know it can be hard to deal with that many patients so I felt for them.

      I was not impressed with the start of my ER experience, but once I got to the back, they were very good and it was worth the wait. The nurse that took me back was super nice and is a mountain biker. He was hounding me about not wearing knee pads. Bad thing about this crash was that I actually brought knee pads to use on my shuttle runs. After the chaos of the storm and my excitement to get back on the trail I forgot to put them on before going out on High Voltage. They protected the trunk really well. It didn't get cut at all.

     Actually, every person that tended to me in the ER was a mountain biker, which was very cool as they all had a little more sympathy than a normal person would have. At first, it seemed like a simple sew-up. Then they cleaned the wound and it became clear that it was worse than any of us thought.. The blood had hidden the size and depth of the cut. The cut was just below my patella, across my patellar tendon and over to the lateral side of the knee. I could actively work my knee fine so the patellar tendon was clearly not damaged. The deepest section was on the side of the knee. They took x-rays just to make sure there were no rocks inside the wound, which made me happy since I was initially concerned about a fracture. The x-ray showed no rocks and no fractures.

     It still seemed this would be easy. They cleaned it again to get some grass out of the deeper section of the wound. Then the doc got very concerned. He feared the wound was deep enough to have damaged my joint capsule. That would be very bad and require a major surgery. You can check the capsule by what they referred to as "challenging the joint." Basically, it's the opposite of removing fluid from the knee. You insert a huge needle into the joint and inject fluid into the capsule. If the fluid then leaks out of the wound the joint capsule has been compromised. It sounded awful. I was not in much pain, but I was squirming from the needles. I absolutely hate them. The thought of a bigger one going inside my knee made me squirm even more. You will never have to worry about this guy ever doping. Not only am I against cheating, I am against needles. I would die before giving myself EPO injections or doing blood transfusions. No way I will ever want to win that bad.

    The main doctor probed my knee to check the depth, then had another doctor check it as well. They were on the fence about challenging the knee. They did not want to put me through that unless it was necessary, but also did not want to sew me up with joint damage that would require a later surgery. An orthopedic doctor came down to take a look and he visually inspected the capsule. Yeah, the cut was that deep. He spent about 10 minutes with a probe deep inside my knee poking at the capsule. It was the most uncomfortable thing I have ever felt. He said he could see the lateral side of the capsule and it was intact so he did not feel we needed to challenge it. Shew! Dodged that one!

     In the end, it was just a simple sew up, but it sure was scary for a minute. Who would have thought sliding out in a turn could do so much damage. I have slid out dozens of times with nothing more than some road rash-type scrapes, but evidently there was a rock sticking up out of the trail this time and it got me. The doctor spaced the stitches out pretty far so I could start range of motion exercises immediately and get back to the bike quicker. That's why I like having a rider doing the work on me. He not only was a mountain biker, but was from Paducah, KY and went to Murray State University. He had ridden at Land Between the Lakes on the Canal Loop and knew several of the Wood-N-Wave team members that I know. It's a small world.

     We were in the hospital for more than four hours. It was a long drive back and we got home at 2 am. By some miracle, I was off work on Wednesday, but Shannon had to be at work by 7. She got very little sleep. Three hours of sitting in a car is not the best after a crash like that. I was stiff and sore to say the least.

     I could barely walk on Wednesday and I was very weak, which they said was from the blood loss. By Thursday, I was feeling better and could bend my knee enough to drive so I went to work. I was worried about being on my feet for eight hours, but I survived. My coworkers and even some of the patients were very kind and helped me as much as they could. I am really impressed by how much I have improved already. Still, the wound is very deep and in a bad spot being right across my joint, so I'll be off the bike for probably 10 days, maybe more. I am out of the Intelligentsia Cup in Chicago next week and the Crossroads Classic the following week in North Carolina. It sucks to miss those races as I feel like I am on good form and they were target races for me. I was really excited for Chicago because they were Cat. 2/3 races and gave me a better chance at a top finish. But it is not to be this year. I am grateful that I only have a flesh wound and some bruises. I could have easily had joint damage or a fracture and been out for the season. Maybe even longer. I am counting my blessings for sure! I want to say thanks to everyone that has helped me out, from guiding us to the hospital to stitching me up and helping me at work. Of course, Shannon gets the most thanks for just putting up with me. She not only helps me get around the house, but also has to put up with me being bored. I really don't know what to do when I can't ride or work outside.

     Below is a small picture of the wound as I waited in the ER. This was after the first cleaning that we did in the parking lot. If you don't like bloody stuff, time to scroll on down.

     Speaking of being outside, here are some pictures from our garden. If you compare them to the pictures from the blog on May 23, you can really see how much the garden has grown.

Peanuts and peppers

     The extra rain this season has helped out a lot. I used a new natural bug spray this year and found out that some of the plants did not tolerate it well. Some of the peppers, broccoli, peanuts and tomatoes died or got close to dying after being sprayed with it. We had a big problem with potato beetles eating the tomatoes and eggplants, but the spray did much more damage to the plants than the bugs did. So much for a natural alternative.

     Garden production has been good overall despite all of our setbacks this year. We have been canning salsa and pickles regularly, freezing squash and eating beans and okra. Our tomato plants look terrible, but are producing more tomatoes and with better quality than we have ever had before. It has been good eating around here lately!

carmen peppers

Eggplant

Peanuts!

Strawberries that were not supposed to bloom this year

Shannon's tiger lily was also not supposed to bloom this year

My Monument

     The dehydration issue forced me to take some time off the bike to get caught up on my water intake and ensure I was recovered from the Cincinnati races. Full rest days were necessary, but they left me with flat legs yet again. I did a long ride on July 4 up to our family cook-out at my parents' camping spot on Lake Barkley. It was a tough 73 miles up there, in the rain with a stiff headwind, but I really needed that kind of ride. My family and friends always crack me up when they see me ride to some family function. You would think that after 15 years of me racing they would come to expect me to ride 70+ miles to a cook-out, but they looked at me like I was crazy when I rode up. One of them even asked if I rode because my car wouldn't start.

     We took advantage of some of the July 4 sales to get us a new grill. We have been wanting one for a very long time and finally had the funds to get us a nice one. I can smell the barbecue chicken and grilled veggies now! Actually I can, because we have already used the grill for that very meal. I can't wait to grill a big pizza on it!

     I raced the Bells Bend Time Trial #4 the following Wednesday night in hopes of getting my legs opened up for the Indy Crit race on Saturday July 11. I did my worst TT in a long time. My legs were junk and I went out too hard on the first climb and blew up. Then I had nothing the rest of the race. I was ahead of my best times at the first checkpoint despite them adding 0.1 miles to the course this week to improve the staging area, but then I lost big chunks of time all the way to the finish. I was a minute behind my worst time ever at the finish, clocking at 32:49. It was a terrible day on the bike, but it did it's job and I felt better after. I finished 7th in the Merckx class. I have now finished 7th in the last four Bells Bend TT races I attended, dating back to August of last year.

      I was still feeling a bit flat on Friday, so I put in some bigger efforts than I normally would do on the day before a race and it did the trick. We stayed in Indy Friday night with cousin Sarah. I rode the trainer while I watched the Tour de France Saturday morning and found I had good legs. Finally, they had come on a day I needed them! Indy Crit was my first real target race of the season. I love the course and usually have family here to watch me race. While most of the family could not make this trip, it still was a big one in my mind and would surely set the tone for my next two target races coming in the next few weeks at the Intelligentsia Cup and Crossroads Classic.

     The course for Indy was changed this year to run in the reverse direction with the finish now coming just before Monument Circle. It really changed the way we raced the course, but still it was the same old Indy. It's wide, fast and the group stays packed up all day. If you were to compare our schedule to NASCAR, Indy is like going to Talladega. Big packs racing very fast, going through the turns six- and seven-wide. It is fun, yet scary at the same time. And it's always exciting to race in front of huge crowds in the city known for racing.

Watching the Cat. 3/4 race from the parking garage

Pro Women charging down Meridian St.

    It was a very nice day weather-wise. There was a threat of rain, but the dark clouds stayed north of downtown. It was partly cloudy and cooler than expected. The temp never went over 83 degrees and the humidity was lower than in recent days. It was a great summer day for some bike racing. The wind was also much calmer than I remember it ever being for this race. What wind was blowing came as a headwind on the finish straight on Meridian St. and tailwind on the long backstretch up Illinois St.

     The first 20 pre-registered riders get a call-up and I managed to be #17 to sign up this year so I got a second row start out of the 96 riders on the start line. That made the early laps very easy for me. The start was fast, but I did not have to use much energy. We averaged 28.8 mph for the first lap from a stop. That is rolling for an opening lap! I was aggressive enough to hold my spot early. I did not try to get up to the very front, just stayed in the top 30 in the opening laps.

On the start line at Indy

Photo courtesy of Photography by Boleyn

Pro/1/2/3 Men start on the cobbles of Monument Circle

Photo courtesy of Patrick LaPetina

Rolling off the line

Photo courtesy of Photography by Boleyn

Photo courtesy of Action Images Indy

Photo courtesy of Action Images Indy

     Things started to get sketchy about 15 minutes into the race. There were several close calls around me, then a big crash on the bricks around Monument Circle. We may have had a tailwind on the finish straight, but it did nothing to slow us down going into the circle, which was much narrower than Meridian St. It became a pinch-point every lap. I dodged the crash and decided it was time to move up. Guys were taking a lot of chances. It seemed like everybody was over-reacting today. I saw so many guys jamming their brakes in every corner and getting sideways. It was like they couldn't control themselves under braking. Another source of sketch are the dozens of manholes located along the course. Some are smooth, others are very deep and will eat your wheel. Richard Keller referred to those as "landmines." They look innocent until your back wheel explodes on the square edge you never saw sticking up three inches above the pavement. Needless to say, flats were a-plenty early on.

Still shot from the GoPro. Getting a little too close to this crash. Video is posted below.

Photo courtesy of Patrick LaPetina

Passing the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument

Photo courtesy of Patrick LaPetina

Photo courtesy of Patrick LaPetina

Good shot of me through the crowd

Photo courtesy of Photography by Boleyn

Photo courtesy of Photography by Boleyn

Photo courtesy of Photography by Boleyn

     Breaks were going off all the time, but nothing got away the first 30 minutes. Five riders got clear with 45 minutes of racing to go, then a group of 10 got a gap in a chase attempt. I wanted to bridge, but could not get clear until another group of 7-8 riders got a gap. I went across to that group at 35 minutes and we bridged to the group of 10. It was too big of a break to ever stick, but there is always the chance of a field split with such a high speed so I was very attentive to the moves. The peloton caught us as we caught the lead break of five, and it was all together again just after the 40 minute mark.

     Two riders counter-attacked almost immediately and got a substantial gap. I stayed up front and followed wheels hoping to get in with any group that went across the gap. We had several fast laps before the group settled down. The leading two had a small gap and the group seemed content to let them dangle out front and fry with the fast pace. We were still averaging 28.4 mph after 50 minutes of the 75-minute race. Going with the breaks took a lot out of my legs, so I dropped back and tried to save what I had left for the final laps when I knew Bissel or Texas Roadhouse would crank the pace for a leadout.

Bricks!

Photo courtesy of Patrick LaPetina

Photo courtesy of Patrick LaPetina

Photo courtesy of Patrick LaPetina

It's getting serious

Photo courtesy of Photography by Boleyn

     I moved back up as the lap card appeared with eight to go. It was tough to stay up front. There were plenty of riders who wanted to be up front and the pace was very high the last 10 minutes. Guys were very aggressive those last five laps and it took some nerve to hang in at the front. Every lap we bottled up going onto the bricks and nearly crashed on one side of the road or the other. There was a crash on one of the laps but it was on the opposite side of the road than where I was so I stayed safe and actually managed to gain spots through the confusion.

Video: 6 laps to go at Indy Crit

Video by Indy Crit

Strung out in the closing laps

Great shot with a few laps to go. I love the steam coming up from the street! You can see my head sticking up there in the middle of the shot.

Photo courtesy of Photography by Boleyn

Photo courtesy of Photography by Boleyn

     I was a bit farther back than I wanted to be at one lap to go. I was maybe 25th and just missed a crash coming off the bricks where a guy went wide on the exit of the turn and plowed the metal barrier going over the bars and possibly even over the barrier. You can see it in the left corner of the video from my handlebar cam. I found a hole up the left side on the long backstretch and gave everything I had to move up against the speed of the Bissel leadout train. I hung the outside of the turn onto New York St. and found myself battling for third spot to get on Adam Leibovitz's wheel. He has won the past two years and it looked as if his Bissel team were setting him up perfectly for win #3. I exchanged elbows with a rider battling for Leibo's wheel before Knapp finally got the spot.

Crash on the left side of this shot as a guy ran wide into the barrier on the final lap. See the video of this below.

Up to third wheel with half a lap to go.

     My legs were screaming! It took so much for me to get to the front that I had nothing left. I lost another spot with three turns to go and was having trouble holding the wheels as we pushed along at 34 mph. I was gapped slightly as we hit the headwind and the front four began to pull away. I was hoping somebody would come by and fill the gap for me, but evidently they were dying behind me too as nobody came by until we went through the turn onto New York St. I stayed in the top 10 through the final turn and gave everything I had to the line as riders came flying by. I wanted so bad to stay in the top 20 and get in the money. I yelled a little in the final push for the line just to let out that last bit of power form deep inside the legs. I crossed the line in 17th. It was my best finish at a bigger race and I was in the money for the first time since 2011 in a criterium. Yeah, it's been almost four full years since I finished in a money spot in any kind of road event.

Leibovitz wins it

Photo courtesy of Action Images Indy

     We really picked up the pace those final laps, raising our average speed to 28.9 for 71 minutes of racing. That was the longest crit. I have completed since this race last year, so I was pleased to be able to get to the front at the end. Leibovitz did win the sprint again, so I was right where I needed to be to battle for the sprint, but I used up my sprint to get there. Still, it was a great, great day and I am very pleased with it. I hit my max heart rate of 188 on the final lap. I actually held 187-188 for the final minute of the race. Yet again, the last lap was our fastest lap of the race so the end was definitely difficult. That is by far the best legs I have had in quite a while. Below is a race video shot by Shannon and Sarah, then highlights from my handlebar cam. There's several crashes on the highlight video and you can watch the full last lap.

Video clips from the Pro/1/2/3 race

Video: Highlights from my handlebar cam at Indy Crit

     Check out Action Images Indy, Patrick LaPetina photos and Photography by Boleyn to view and purchase some great photos from the event. Most of the photos I posted above are from these guys.

     I want to end this post by giving a shout-out to the Monster, Scott McConnell. If you will remember back two years ago, Scott completed the Tour Divide, racing from Canada down to Mexico across the Continental Divide for 2745 miles. This summer, he spent four weeks racing the Trans Am Bike Race, riding 4406 miles from Astoria, OR to Yorktown, VA. I enjoyed reading his updates on Facebook, especially when he talked about eating pie for fuel. I was hoping to ride with him when he passed through southern Illinois and Kentucky, but he came through while we were in Cincinnati. Oddly enough, he passed over I-65 in Kentucky about 10 minutes after we did on our drive home from Cincy. Had I known he was so close I would have stopped and bought the guy a slice of pie. He did not get to train for this one as much as for the Divide, but the man is one stubborn SOB and fought all the way to the end. He was the first rider to complete the all-road race on a singlespeed mountain bike. Great job Scott!

Scott McConnell atop Chief Joseph Pass in Montana during the Trans Am Bike Race

Great job buddy!