2007 24hr Worlds -Laguna Seca

To truly understand my Worlds experience we need to back up to sunday night 5
days
before the start when I was climbing on my IF ss thru the local trails. A
brief look down to check something turned out to be a major mistake as an out
of control DH rider with full face helmet and body Armour clocks me head on
doing about 40mph. All I can rememeber is a greyish blue blur entering my
world...next thing I know I'm squirming on the ground 15ft from my bike trying
to catch my breathe. I look down and see blood spitting out of my right shin,
my left thumb is loosely hanging back toward my wrist and my chest really
hurt. I quickly realized I had been hit...I grabbed my thumb and put it back
in it's socket before the real pain set in. Meanwhile the other guy is asking
me if I need medical help- I was not going to hang around and find out so I
grabbed my leg and tried to asses the situation but the blood loss was intense
and it hurt too much to touch - I quickly told him to asses my bike 'cause I
needed to get home before the shock wore off. I made a turnakit -but looked at
my bike thinking it would be twisted...turns out the tire blew off the rim and
the tube never even blew,So I rolled the tire back on straightened the bars
and rolled down the hill to go home. That night after convincing myself and my
wife that I would be fine, I tried cleaning the wound only to find that it was
over an inch wide but had stopped bleeding. A trip to the doc in a box was
inevitable so I awoke early and rode over to the walk-in. 15 stitches and a
questionably broken sternum bone ( i would not let them take an x-ray for fear
of knowing the truth)I left after the Dr. told me how lucky I was for just
missing the muscle and bone (nearly impossible to do in that region of the
leg) I felt that was enough of a "green light" to pursue my challenge of racing
in 5 days, .The rest of the week was spent trying to convince Docs., family and
friends that I could still pull off a good finish. Ian arrived from England on
weds, and was having nothing to do with the injury-just would have nothing of
it...so We prerode the course on thursday,despite some pain and stinging I
thought I could manage the pain enough to finish.
Race day came and my lead up was descent despite the injuries - the run
set off and I felt good finishing the run in the top 20 with Ian just in front
of me and Hendershot next to me. The first lap was fun getting heckled by
Steve Schwarz as I led him thru the twisty singletrack. The course was super
exposed and dry..but flowed pretty well. It did however contain about 3000
feet of exposed steep climbs on loose gravel roads. I was trying to warm up
but realized my body was not feeling that good -fatigue. I think the blow
caused extreme trauma to my body and I was still very bruised and tender. My
breathing was short and restless-not good signs early on but I had been thru
this before -sometimes the legs get better at about the 7hr mark- I thought
just hang in and the legs will come around. I was running 1 hr 20min laps for
awhile but felt empty with no quad power.
I was heading out for what I think was my 4th lap - going over the bridge
and down the stairs toward the first climb- as I got to the stair case and
start rolling down - a Flash enters my eye-it is a team rider coming up the
wrong side of the bridge with his bike sideways...I smack into him with his
pedal or handlebar ripping into my shin where the stitches were, I hit the
ground and begin to cramp. The kid continued on his like nothing happened
despite the next solo rider having to bail mid staircase as well- I struggle
over to the med tent to get treated....my elbow was now cut and my hips were
twisted and I felt like my wound was opened-just then the 1st Drs. comments
rang loud through my narrow mind"Just don't rip these stitches open because we
cannot put new ones in and certainly do not tear the inner 6 stitches or
you'll be done, possibly forever!!!" needless to say medical personel at the
tent were a tad shocked to see that I had been riding with stitches and
several wounds, I insisted I just needed them to crack my back and put the
power back into my legs...they were insistent about pulling the gravel out of
my wounds but I soon convinced them to adjust my back and hips and I swung
the leg back over the top tube to go out for another lap.
I churned another lap but had crushed my shifter in the collision and had
shifting issues for a lap before Casey could dial it in while I adjusted my
attitude from competitive to survival.
when the stomach got rocky at midnight I lost all my dinner on the course
while climbing up into the camping area -there must have been 15-20 people
watching me and cheering me thru some soul searching moments...but they
cheered even louder when I hoped back on and rode the final climb.I need to
refuel but could not hold anything down until 4am so I decided to pack it and
help Ian ,who was finding his legs and
having fun. I supported Ian thru the wee hours of the morning as the demons
entered his World I was there to show them the exit and keep him rockin. Once
the temps started rising and I was able to hold down some broth I decided to
get my ars out there for some more laps. Those last two laps of the race
salvaged the weekend for me as far as enjoyment go....I just let it rip and
tried to enjoy it all.
Worlds was my 6th 24hr finish of the season 5 of which were solo on top of
2 100 milers and 2 12 hr events - A break is severely needed before the 100
mile invite ride/race thru tahoo(next years west coast NUE 100 mile course)
and the trip to Belize for the 7day stage race.
Thanks to Independent Fabrication and Cytomax for the unparalleled support
not too mention,Tina & Casey for the mechanics and support- you guys rule