Bad news travels fast too. Take for example the text I got last Thursday night while driving to Brian Head, UT for the National Mountain Bike Series Finale. Just after passing the giant thermometer in Baker that read 103-degrees, I got forwarded a text from Joy that was originally sent to her from Adam that said something like, “Some chick hit a car at crit.”
Being the must-know-it-all that I am, I immediately sent out a group text to nearly everyone I know that may have been at crit that evening. I got several replies. Some knew nothing about it, so all I did was raise their own curiosities, but some were actually witness to the horrible accident and so I got what turned out to be the straight answer. Straight from the horse’s mouth, or cell phone I should say, Jeff Padgett answered for his injured wife with, “It was Trish. I’m at the hospital now with her. Stitches in her head and a broken clavicle.” By his text I gathered it wasn’t life threatening and I figured I better not bother him anymore. He and Trish obviously had more important things to worry about other than my curiosity.
End of story? Not quite. In the days that followed I started to get more info from more sources. Brian Head isn’t exactly the best place for cell coverage, so that may have been part of the problem, but between Thursday night and Monday morning the crit crash went from a single-rider incident to a 10-rider massacre.
There were so many other questions that a simple text could not take care of. What about said car? Did the car hit Trish? No one had said anything about a car in their texts except for Adam, texter extraordinaire. Did anyone else hit the car? Did the car hit anyone else? Who else was in the pile up? Why hadn’t Adam mentioned the other people that had gone down? Was it because Trish was the only one who was injured or was it because Trish was the only one who hit the car? What kind of car was it? And then the selfish bastard in me also wanted to know who took the sprint, if there was a break, and if the crash had black flagged the ride altogether. So many questions, so little good information.
Upon my return I found out that most of the information I had heard was not true. According to Padgett, here's what really happened. The entire time, there was a car parked on San Bernardino Ave on the other side of turn three. For some reason the line got towed toward the car and at the last second people were moving and swerving left in order to miss it. At that point someone crossed over Trish’s front wheel and she went down. She ended up with more than a dozen stitches in her head scrapes and bruises all over her body and a broken clavicle, which required surgery, a plate and pins. No one else crashed. No one hit a car. No one politely fessed up to taking her out. That’s two weeks in a row of people hitting the ground because someone else is riding stupid.
Head up you A-holes! Yes, you should hold your head down in shame when you're not riding, but you should KEEP YOUR HEAD UP WHILE RIDING YOUR BIKE! I have this fear that Ryder is going to have to spoon feed me and change my pants before I’m 90 years old because of something stupid one of you have done. Instead, I’d much rather spend the next 50 or so years spoon feeding you all pain, shame, and suffering. I’ll say it again: Head up A-holes!
Being the must-know-it-all that I am, I immediately sent out a group text to nearly everyone I know that may have been at crit that evening. I got several replies. Some knew nothing about it, so all I did was raise their own curiosities, but some were actually witness to the horrible accident and so I got what turned out to be the straight answer. Straight from the horse’s mouth, or cell phone I should say, Jeff Padgett answered for his injured wife with, “It was Trish. I’m at the hospital now with her. Stitches in her head and a broken clavicle.” By his text I gathered it wasn’t life threatening and I figured I better not bother him anymore. He and Trish obviously had more important things to worry about other than my curiosity.
End of story? Not quite. In the days that followed I started to get more info from more sources. Brian Head isn’t exactly the best place for cell coverage, so that may have been part of the problem, but between Thursday night and Monday morning the crit crash went from a single-rider incident to a 10-rider massacre.
There were so many other questions that a simple text could not take care of. What about said car? Did the car hit Trish? No one had said anything about a car in their texts except for Adam, texter extraordinaire. Did anyone else hit the car? Did the car hit anyone else? Who else was in the pile up? Why hadn’t Adam mentioned the other people that had gone down? Was it because Trish was the only one who was injured or was it because Trish was the only one who hit the car? What kind of car was it? And then the selfish bastard in me also wanted to know who took the sprint, if there was a break, and if the crash had black flagged the ride altogether. So many questions, so little good information.
Upon my return I found out that most of the information I had heard was not true. According to Padgett, here's what really happened. The entire time, there was a car parked on San Bernardino Ave on the other side of turn three. For some reason the line got towed toward the car and at the last second people were moving and swerving left in order to miss it. At that point someone crossed over Trish’s front wheel and she went down. She ended up with more than a dozen stitches in her head scrapes and bruises all over her body and a broken clavicle, which required surgery, a plate and pins. No one else crashed. No one hit a car. No one politely fessed up to taking her out. That’s two weeks in a row of people hitting the ground because someone else is riding stupid.
Head up you A-holes! Yes, you should hold your head down in shame when you're not riding, but you should KEEP YOUR HEAD UP WHILE RIDING YOUR BIKE! I have this fear that Ryder is going to have to spoon feed me and change my pants before I’m 90 years old because of something stupid one of you have done. Instead, I’d much rather spend the next 50 or so years spoon feeding you all pain, shame, and suffering. I’ll say it again: Head up A-holes!
See that thing that looks like a six legged caterpillar sitting on Trish's shoulder? That's no insect. That's a plate and six screws in her clavicle.
Trish, prior to being taken out, in much happier times. Get well soon Trish. Jeff is much more pleasant to be around when you're near.
4 comments:
If it's any consolation, the days are rapidly approaching where we'll all be stuck indoors on our trainers, or riding the trails by the glow of a headlamp. Any crashes in those situations are generally self-inflicted, and anyone who manages to crash on a trainer (rollers excluded), should probably steer well clear of bicycles anyway.
Thanks Matt. Hurts like a mother, while I lay here flat on my back, typing with one hand. Dilaudid, Norco, and Vicodin are my friends these days (and my mom who came out from Michigan to take care of me). Don't think I;ll do crit again -- I inevitably get stuck in the back with all the funky riders who cross wheels and lines and weave all over the place. Not a safe place to be obviously! Thanks to all you awesome riders who have supported me through this and have encouraged me and made me a better rider over the last year! I am always open to visitors. Tricia
I figure the best chance at surviving crit these days is to pedal like hell, stay at the front of the pack (for as long as you can) then get dropped and wait to get back into the group the following lap. I speak from experience on being dropped and getting dropped (by a sign).
Ouch, no fun! I do still miss tues/thurs riding with you guys. Be safe and stay off the front!
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