Continuing with the "beautiful fall weather is awesome for riding" theme, I headed out this morning with Matt Joss and Brian Bain. We set a pretty good pace from Edworthy out to Cochrane along the cabin jam route. We had worked up a good sweat, and Brian and I were almost questioning ourselves as we left Cochrane Coffee Traders all wet if it was really the best idea to go out for several more hours when it was that chilly right out the door. We proceeded onward, and rode through the Cochrane Ranch park, up to the end of the gravel road in the valley, then out to Horse Creek road. Once Horse Creek met up with Weedon Trail, we turned west through the fields on the future road easements. It was warm and beautiful, there were people out horseback riding, and the climbs were long enough to drain our legs with the 'cross gearing.
We were having a blast descending back toward 1A, so much of a blast in fact that I ended up probably going a little too fast downhill. We were side by side on a tiretrack path between some fields, blazing along, when I noticed my side was about to turn to giant ruts on the right, and safety on the left. Funny how a 'cross tire chattering along doesn't have quite as much control as a 2" wide mountain bike tubeless tire at 28psi and a suspension fork. From my powertap download, the moment before impact was 43.5km/h - it's easy to spot on the file as something knocked the computer off the bike, so it flatlines immediately at that spot. Impact included my front wheel washing out when I was trying to climb left out of the rut, it not gripping enough (too much chatter at that speed), and an "ass over tea kettle" type manouver that left me lying in the dirt with a few parts of my body hurting - left quad hit the dirt really hard (the ridge of the rut), it's gonna be sore for probably 5 days. My left tricep is super sore, feels like I pulled a muscle in there, riding home it hurt to stand and pedal. Funny though because when I came to a stop, only one foot was out of my pedals, and both hands were on the handlebars, I just let go once everything was done moving (ie. captain went down with the ship). Hit my head on the dirt pretty good, bent my rear rim a good 1.5cm out of line, and slid my stem, brake levers and such around a little. I've been "sewing intensive" lately, lots things have needed mending - and now there's more. Went through elbows and knees of all my layers of clothing unfortunately, and down to the skin enough to leave me with some scratches that are constantly sticking to my clothes tonight. I'm sure glad I had on full length cycling clothes to spare my skin most of the damage.
All went back together fairly well, just had to undo the rear brake to ride home. After stopping for coffee in Cochrane, we actually didn't even end up taking the short way home, we opted for the scenic route.
Just walking around my house tonight, I feel like I'm going to suffer a little reduced mobility tomorrow!
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