When it rains it pours...

[kevinmcdade]

I was having a great night at the track and an awsome workout until I went down:(

I just got back from the ER and all is well!!! No big deal...stuff happens. No ones fault, just a freak accident. I have multiple abrasions on my shoulder, hip, hand, and forearem. No broken bones...Thank God!!! Thankfully I have a fair amount of muscle mass around my shoulder blade. The extra muscle was able to absorb the shock and I ended up just tearing some muscle tissue. I'm sore and will be in bed tomorrow (I needed an excuse to take a day or two off work). I will probably be off of the bike for the next 2 weeks or until I regain full motion of my shoulder.

With the luck that I have been having lately this is why I chose to ride on the track today. It would have totally sucked to have this happen way out in the middle of no where.

[RC_spinner]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your spill. To quote one of my favorite movies, Cool Hand Luke, take the time to get your mind right ;) . You will be amazed at the mental freshness that you will feel when you get back in the saddle. Think of it as rock bottom, right?

BTW, how's the bike?

Chris

[kevinmcdade]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your spill. To quote one of my favorite movies, Cool Hand Luke, take the time to get your mind right ;) . You will be amazed at the mental freshness that you will feel when you get back in the saddle. Think of it as rock bottom, right?

BTW, how's the bike?

Chris

Not quite rock bottom but pretty close! I'm actually in better spirits about this than I was about my mechanicals.

The bike is fine. I actually dusted myself off and got back on the track until the pain started setting in.

[cuda2k]

Kevin, sorry to hear it man. Rest up and heal up, the bikes will be there when you're ready to get back on. (Taking a bit of the advise everyone was giving me last month)

[kevinmcdade]

Thanks Jon! I have no choice but to rest now:D I should be back in 1-2 weeks easy.

[Stray Cat]

Sorry to hear that. Glad to hear you didn't break anything. Hope you have a speedy recovery :beer:

[aikigreg]

extra protein will help speed the healing. Glad you're mostly safe and sound.

[jsharr]

Thanks for tellig us about you, but we have to know:

IS THE BIKE OKAY?:D

Sorry to hear about the spill Kevin, hope you recover fast and get back out there.

[kevinmcdade]

Thanks for tellig us about you, but we have to know:

IS THE BIKE OKAY?:D

Sorry to hear about the spill Kevin, hope you recover fast and get back out there.

LOL!!! The bike is fine!!! Even though I am supposed to be home resting today I just had to do a full inspection of the bike. The only damage to the bike is ripped bar tape, a scrape on the saddle, and the right pedal is scraped up.

[Doggus]

Kevin, glad to hear you're in good spirits and no broken bones. We were worried about you after you left wondering if maybe you just weren't feeling your injuries yet.

Unfortunately it was my back wheel that took Kevin out. I keep replaying the incident over and over in my head. There was a tight squeeze we were going to have to get through to get around those two who were poking along in the sprinters lane and the riders we were currently passing who were high. I finally boiled it down to one of those moves we make on the freeways around here. I knew I possibly had one or two in line after me and the situation was getting hairy quick so I chose to go low and give whoever was behind me some room to stop or follow me before plowing into the pokies. Going high was not an option as I saw someone above and to the rear and the gap to get through was closing down quickly. I don't know who was up there. Anyway, I heard and barely felt the rub as I moved left and knew instantly there was wheel contact.

Kevin, you should post a pic of that helmet. That's one of the best examples I've seen of why we wear helmets. It compressed and split on the side of impact. With no helmet I know the outcome would have been a lot worse.

I think you would have had fun later as Aaron organized a 10 lap scratch race. He sneakily told Todd out of earshot to go anytime after lap 7. At lap 7 I was on the back and he whispered to me to 'go now with everything you got'. So he set us two up for a final claws out battle for the line. Todd blew by me with half a lap to go as I was spun out in my 48x16 and couldn't spin any faster without losing control. I guess I need to learn to spin even faster although part of the problem is the fitter at RBM set me up way too aggressive on that bike and I'm running 19c tires which really make the bike squirrelly in the corners. Soon to be corrected though.

Hope to see you out there again soon! Heal quickly.

[All1NTao]

Sorry to hear that hopefully I will see you out Monday.

[kevinmcdade]

Thanks for refreshing my memory, Steve!!! To be honest, I couldn't remember what exactly happened. Now I remember the two riders who were riding WAY too slow to be in the sprinters lane. They should have been above the blue line. I remember us scrambling to get around them. I did the same thing that you described; I looked high and saw we were blocked in so I went low. You and I must have been thinkign the same thing at the exact same time. It definitely was not your fault. I just want to know why those guys didn't give us the same respect that we give them by moving up on the track when your are not doing a paceline or an effort. OH well...

I just finished looking at my helmet!!! This helmet really saved my dome!!! It is not only scraped all to hell it is cracked in two different places that would have been my right temple if I would not have had a helmet on. I guess this can be my excuse to pick up one of the new Giro Atmos helmets:D

I'm glad you guys had a great workout. I look forward to having a strong PACC showing at the Friday night races.

BTW...I went home because the pain was REALLY starting to set in. I called my wife and had her on standby so we could head to the ER as soon as I pulled into the driveway.

[Doggus]

Later on when we were all throwing our bikes in the cars and shooting the bull, I started pinging some of the guys (and girls) on what they thought went wrong. The one guy who rides the white Langster (I forget his name) was saying that there seems to be two sets of rules at the Superdrome. The published rules say to ride high if your going slower. But then those two, when they do their 12 lap whatever-workout tend to ask people to ride low if you're gonna ride slow cause they like to be able to see where you're at and it's easier if you're down low when they decide to divebomb into the sprinters lane. That begs the question, when they do get into their sprints are you then supposed to go high in respect for their workout. I'm confused as hell. The white langster guy said it's just easiest to pull off the track when their working out so as not to get in their way. After the scratch race they had another 12-lap workout and they went around telling everyone on the track that they were about to begin so we all just kind of made our way in to the pits.


BTW...what is your bike and when did you get it? It looks very similar to mine. Also there is a link to the pics last night on the PACC site. There are some good clear ones of you there. You might wanna take a peek.

[kevinmcdade]

I always thought the rule at the Superdrome and any other velodrome is to stay out of the sprinters lane if you are not doing an effort. Tooling around the track, cooling down, and warming up should be done above the blue line. Sounds like they are making up their own rules. I'm just a little upset because we ALWAYS give them the right of way, or better yet, the whole track when they are doing their efforts. We'll just start doing like them and telling everyone at the track when we are going to be doing a paceline or a scratch race or whatever.

My bike is a Fuji Track Pro. I built it up about 3 weeks ago. It's about the same level as yours. We have the same wheels but the frames are built differently. They are both great track frames though. I could have gone with either.

[jmccain]

...
I just finished looking at my helmet!!! This helmet really saved my dome!!! It is not only scraped all to hell it is cracked in two different places that would have been my right temple if I would not have had a helmet on. I guess this can be my excuse to pick up one of the new Giro Atmos helmets:D


Some helmet makers will replace a helmet for free. You may want to check.

[kevinmcdade]

Some helmet makers will replace a helmet for free. You may want to check.

I thought about using the replacement program but I'm keeping this one. This helmet will be a very good visual to show newbies or anyone else who doesn't think cycling helmets do any good. I have several helmets that I wear and I am itching for a 2007 Atmos. I have two other Bell Sweep R's and a Pneumo so I'm good to go in the helmet department.

[Lecterman]

Kevin,

Sorry to hear about your spill.

Heal up soon.