Longest race ever!

I "raced" the Snelling road race on Saturday, one of the biggest early season NorCal races. But racing is a bit too strong of a word. I warmed up for 10 minutes then did the world's slowest roll-outs in which I managed to move from the very back of the pack to about 20th position using my great pack skills I learned fighting on narrow roads in northern Europe. Of course these pack skills may not have served me too well since 300 meters into the race the two riders in front of me decided to run into each other and fall over into my front wheel at about 30mph. This resulted in a 30 rider pileup and effected about 70% of the field in one way or another.

Considering I hit the deck at 30 and had a bunch of guys run into or over me, I got off pretty lightly. I have some bad road rash on my right side, but nothing is broken and I should be back to normal in a week. Amazingly my bike also survived the carnage with only a few scratches to the shifters and saddle. It could have been much worse, like Tyler Dibble's Tarmac which ended up in a few pieces:


I went back to the start and got bandaged up then went back out and rode a lap of the course. In the process I got caught by the break and spent a few minutes chatting to them while riding next to them in the wind. Then I was caught by the remnants of the peleton and did the same thing there. The finish was pretty exciting and it made me really want to be out there racing, but for now I have to rest up to be ready to hammer at the Merco races next weekend in Merced. Our UnitedHealthcare presented by Maxxis team will field a super strong team and we are prepared to really make people suffer.

I'm hoping the sketchy people won't make an appearance or will be too far back in the pack to crash me out.