I still bounce well

Well...women's racing opened last night at Pacific Raceways and it was...fun. There was a good turnout and we had a great Cat 4 race going. Unfortunately I missed out on the finish. There's a section of the backside of the track that has track compound, which improves traction for the start of a drag strip. When it's dry it's a little tacky and feels strange. When it's wet, like last night, it's like riding on ice. As long as you ride straight across it and don't make any sudden moves (like sprinting, applying the brakes, etc) it's not a problem. Yeah...you probably know where this is going...

On our last lap I moved to the back to take a rest and set up for the sprint. I drifted over behind a gal from TGH that I know to be a strong rider and good sprinter. About that time we crossed into the track compound and a Wines rider started to attack. The TGH gal stood up to counter and as soon as I saw her get up I thought, "Oh shit." Her back tire went right out from under her and she went down hard. I flicked my handlebars just a hair to try to get around and my back tire spun out and I hit the deck.

The only positive about crashing on the track compound is that there's no friction so you don't end up with road rash. I slid for what seemed like an eternity. At least I learned from my last fall and never took my hands off the handlebars, so I just drug the bike with me. Good news is that the Ruby didn't even get a scratch, the Polar survived, and my only long sleeve Zoka jersey is just scuffed up with track compound.

I knew we were going pretty fast and when I got home and downloaded my Polar data I got see how quickly I went from 26mph to 0. Ouch. I don't think I've ever gone down that hard. My entire left side hurts today and I have big lumps and bruises on my hip, my ribs, and the outside of my thigh. My elbow is bruised and I have several other bruises popping up all over the place. The right side of my neck feels like it has wiplash. Ugh.

I feel really bad that we also took out the poor guy shooting the Start2Finish movie. He was behind us with a video cam on his bike, so maybe he at least got a great action shot. Sorry man! I hope he's alright. This certainly adds an extra challenge to TST on Saturday. I guess I'll just have to see how I feel by then and hope I can ride. Right now I'm not feeling so chipper.

I guess it was a bad night for everyone at PR. One of our other Zoka gals went down in a crash in another race and I guess there was a crash in the juniors race that took out a coach as well. Luckily everyone got up and I think bruises and soreness are the extent of the injuries. Fun night!