Road Cycling - Lucky Lucky Me

Call it a case of bad timing, but I happened to be glancing down at my FD today (I was having some strange shifting issues) when my paceline slowed for something in the road. I looked up just in time to see my front wheel clip the rear wheel in front of me at 20 MPH. I ended up sliding on some gravel and smashing the back of my head into the ground (yeah, I was wearing a helmet). After brushing myself off, I did a quick body and bike check. I'd slid on my shoulder, side, back, arm, leg, and foot, and all I found was a tiny hole in my wind vest. My brand new custom University of Iowa jersey came out perfectly fine, nothing on my bike was bent or dented, and the decals didn't have a single scratch. My helmet's gone, but it's covered by Bell's replacement policy, so the whole fiasco is going to end up costing 35 bucks and a little skin. I count that as pretty lucky.

at 20mph, yes that was pretty lucky! Check problems at the back next time and drop back a bit aye? ;)

Happy riding,
Brendon

What are you doing in Walla Walla with a Hawkeye jersey? (they are pretty sweet jerseys, aren't they?)

What are you doing in Walla Walla with a Hawkeye jersey? (they are pretty sweet jerseys, aren't they?)


My folks both went to UI, and I've always loved the Tiger Hawk logo. Plus, yellow and black = great visibility.

Awesome - I guess I won't hold the fact that you didn't come to Iowa against you. - Wear it with pride.

Go Hawks

Oh, and sorry to hear about your crash, but I agree, you were pretty lucky... Must be the jersey. ha.

For Xtrmyorick or Legal_Dealer, is this a cycling jersey? I'm a Iowa grad and avid Hawk fan - my call sign sould be a give away (also ride a Harley, thus HOG-I). Are they avail. thru the Hawk Shop?

Naah, they are through the cycling club here at Iowa, check it out

http://www.uiowa.edu/~cycling/

click on the merchendise link, and you can see some pictures of it. There will be another order in late march.

So, Legal_Dealer, are you currently a student at UI? If so, how's the cycling program? Did it just get started up this year?

There are likely, very few of us that post to this site who make their living riding a bicycle competitively. Yes, I know that it's more fun to ride faster than slower. So, to ride faster with less effort, we amateurs imitate the pros and their riding techniques. However, I've had a riding friend go down in same way as described in this thread: broken collar bone, three cracked ribs, broken thumb, and a slight concussion. Stop and think, should we be imitating the pro race car drivers? I've been to WinstonCup Nascar (Talledaga), but yet I don't try to drive my car the way they do. It's my conviction that we amateurs can get away with imitating far more skilled professional riders, most of the time: But not ALL of the time. And you will run out of luck eventually.

That's ridiculous. I've seen countless pros go down because of little mistakes. They also have to learn those skills somewhere. It's not like pros just pop out of nowhere. They start out by riding as amateurs and pick up close riding techniques the same way as the rest of us.