Okay Chicago
 

Where are the pics/updates from the TDC from this morning? Who got up early enough to attend? How was the film fest? Was there a party? Did a Milwaukeean claim victory yet again? Ouch! ;)

A bit of choas this morning. Good turn out. I'm not sure where the victor is from.

It was a checkpoint style with riddles at each checkpoint to figure out where the next point was. Good idea in theory. The first checkpoint was reached with no snafu's, however upon reading the riddle, our once cohesive riding pack split in every direction and some ended up going the right way and a lot went the wrong way. I'm not sure how many people actually went to the correct 2nd checkpoint, but I was not one of them. After getting way lost we called the help line and they told us where the third checkpoint was. When we got there they told us the race was over, and to just head back to the start. Kind of a bogus morning, but that's what I get for not being a good riddle solver.

So a five checkpoint race turned into a bunch of people getting lost and the race being called early.

So it goes.

Oh also, there were a couple wrecks. A guy in our pack dropped into a deep wide pothole and went over the bars. It caused two flats, a trashed from rim and some bent handlebars. He was okay though.

There was another that was a little worse. I don't have full fact on this so I won't speculate. All I do know is the rider was crossing one of of the grated bridges downtown and lodged his front tire in a slot just big enough for it to fit. Tire got stuck, he went over the bars and scraped is face. Ambulance came. We were notified at the end of the race that we was okay. The other Chicagoans on these forums went to the hospital to check on him and I'm sure they can give a better account of the happening and correct me where I went wrong.

That was our morning.

What was the riddle?

The guy that went down on the bridge was absntr, from this forum. I'm sure more details will be posted later, but most important is that he'll fine... eventually.

Oh, No! Chicago fixie curse continued! :(

Seriously, what the hell? Didn't he just get hit by a car not too long ago? Rough city man, rough city.

I am the victor.
1/2 the riders went NW instead of SW for one of the checkpoints.

Jeez, He has no luck. Didn't he just wreck real bad a couple months ago? Hope your recovery is speedy absntr!

Aye carumba! I heard it was a really nasty spill. Get better soon Absntr! We're all hoping to see you in the saddle again soon. :D

[165] was there when it happened and made sure he got taken care of. After the race when we heard what had happend, stickerguy, Yuppie, Marcus, and I went over to the hospital to check on him. He's going to need stitches, but he was talking and totally with it, and the doctors said he should be able to get out tomorrow (Sunday).

I too got caught up in the group (with lightgraphs) that went the wrong way after the Art Institute, and it was a *haul* to get out to Paulaski and Montrose. Two of the Milwaukee kids were in our group, including the Stage 1 winner, Casey. You *could* say it was an evil ploy on the part of us Chicagoans to give a local the win (congrats Jeremy!), but in reality it was just straight-up boneheadedness.

Did anyone end up going to the film festival?

Wow, that sucks about Absntr. I am always a bit nervous on those bridges.Glad to hear he'll be okay.

Dude, today's Sunday!

yeah, it was pretty harsh. he is lucky.
We shot out from Grand onto Milwaukee past Blommers, hooked over the Kinzie bridge and right onto Lasalle. I was 10 meters back from absntr when I saw his front tire drop between the grid plates and wedge. His speed in addition to the stuck front tire threw him directly in front of his bike and onto the bridge, contacting head first. (edit- face first)
Dept of Streets and San was rolling by opposite direction. They diverted traffic and called Chicago Finest. An ambulance was on the way. absntr was rough, but tough.
thanks to the others who stopped to help.

So it is, so it is.... hooray for being a moron!

A wasted weekend is never a weekend wasted ..

No, and seeing what happened today is enough to keep me wearing a helmet. I am not sure if it really would have prevented any of the injuries he sustained, due to how he landed. But they are still a good idea - I am recently rediscovering that.

This wasn't a car's fault. This wasn't user error. This was just plain bad luck. But whatever...heal fast absntr - we got time watch some movies now!

yeah ive had a bad experience where my helmet definitely saved my life. before that my helmet use was sporadic but now im sold.

absntr??? Well he had just past me going from Kinzie to LaSalle. Over the bridge we were moving out.... 3 feet in front of me.... He went down in between the grates in the bridge... I asked "Dude you okay" no answer.. No movement.. Finally after stopping traffic and pulling the bike from the grating...He woke up. He was out cold for a good 45 seconds it felt like longer. He looked up at me and his face was bad. Contusion above the eye. Chipped teeth..Ripped up lips. Blood. I hope he heals. Damn it was indeed the worst self inflicted accident I've ever seen. Wow. A helmet probably wouldn't of stopped this.

I didn't mean to set off the helmet vs. no helmet discussion. The way [165] described it sounded like he hit head first, rather than face first. No helmet short of a full face DH or motorcycle helmet can save you from a face first impact.
Get well soon absntr! :)

sheet. grates are scary. really scary. hope he heals fast and is able to ride soon.

Indeed, best wishes to Absntr (Naz). He was doing well in the ER as Kev mentioned. A helmet may or may not have helped, but one thing for sure is those bridges can be nasty. I know now that you can get stuck in them but they also suck when it's wet out. Anyway, Naz will be up and about tomorrow. Peace.

I was in that same pack. I took a look at a map afterwards and figured we went 20-24 miles out of our way.

Wow. Double dose of Chicago Curse for absntr. Heal quick and I hope there's no damage to your new bike.

Faceplants suck bigtime - hope you get well soon absntr.

Scary ish.

Get better soon, absntr.