(long) Happy yet drenched, battered and bruised!

[Catrin]

This morning was my very first organized ride - I chose the 26 mile option (for locals this was the Brownsburg Trails fundraiser). I took my LHT with me and had no idea what to expect as how this whole "organized" thing works. I almost always ride by myself and the largest number of people I have ridden around before has been two friends.

Ok, so we got started - saw a friend from spinning class so he said that he would ride with me for a little ways until I got over being nervous. I was surprised to be a little nervous about riding around all of those people but that passed pretty quickly. As he said would happen, everyone stretched out. The rain began 3 miles into the ride... no fireworks, just a light soaking rain. It was refreshing and cooling...then came the first (and only) SAG stop on my chosen route.

Instead of stopping on the road and walking it, I decided to ride into the gravel drive and stop there. I have no idea what happened next - perhaps a combination of wet gravel and wet brakes, but I did not stop as intended... somehow I wound on the ground with my thumb stuck behind my trigger shifter (and it took some help to get it out). That was when we realized that my leg had somehow gotten stuck through/underneath the frame :eek: This is a small frame and it took several people to extricate me without hurting my leg further....

My leg was, and is, a very "pretty" sight, and will no doubt be quite colorful for a few days at least. Cuts/punctures/scrapes and so forth on the front of my leg - but nothing more. My LHT HAD 2 bottle cages this morning, it now has one, my leg bent one of them totally out of shape. Better the cage than the leg I say! Thankfully I did get a tetnus shot earlier in this decade...

They had a first-aid kit so cleaned/bandaged the leg. Got a banana and peanut butter, put the chain back on the crank and removed/disposed the bottle cage. Then I went on to complete the ride :D

I am very glad that I finished it, though someone did offer me a SAG ride back to my car. The rain stopped soon after and while the humidity rose the temps didn't, a nice breeze came and the second half of the ride was beautiful.

At the end I was starting to run out of energy, starving and thirsty. I was too nervous to drink from my 'bac around everyone, though I did manage to do that a few times while riding :D

All in all I am very happy with how things went, even if there was an unplanned adventure!

[ny biker]

Congrats!! I hope your war wounds heal quickly.

[Maxxxie]

Good on you for getting back on your steed! Lesser people (like me) would've given it up as a bad job and gone home. Well done! I'm sure your next organised ride won't be quite as exciting :)

Max

[bmccasland]

:eek: Wow! What a way to slide into the rest stop! Did the Russian Judge give you a 10? ;)
Hope you get to feeling better soon. And I'm with Maxxxie, I might have SAG'd it the rest of the way, but to untangle yourself then continue the ride, impressive! :D

[Owlie]

Good for you! I might have packed it in and gone home. Hopefully that heals quickly!

[lph]

Hey-hey! You'll have hero scars! Way cool :D

[Catrin]

Hey-hey! You'll have hero scars! Way cool :D

At least I have a story for them :) How many people have chain scars on the FRONT of their leg?

[ny biker]

:eek: Wow! What a way to slide into the rest stop! Did the Russian Judge give you a 10?

It's like I always say, if you're gonna need help, you might as well need it right in front of the place where the helpers are hanging out.

[sgtiger]

Catrin - Kudos for finishing your first organized ride, especially after a fall like that! I'm way impressed that you stuck it out till the end.:cool:

[Catrin]

It's like I always say, if you're gonna need help, you might as well need it right in front of the place where the helpers are hanging out.

I certainly had plenty of help - and they all moved away too quickly for me to thank them once I had a chance to gather myself. I really was concerned about my leg at the time and still am amazed how I wound up getting my leg so caught up in my bike frame - especially since it is such a small bike. I am really thankful for all of the help.

No bruising yet (though it is early yet) - and the Russian judges gave me a high-five after giving me a perfect score for the exciting finish :)

[salsabike]

Gravel! $*()$&W%)&. I wiped out on it this spring test-riding new bikes. I did everything wrong--turned into a gravel path going quickly and leaning a lot. It's not very cooperative stuff, is it?

Good for you for going ahead and finishing!

[OakLeaf]

Yikes. I crashed hard on gravel a couple of years ago and still have a dent in my hip. :rolleyes:

Glad you had fun anyway. :) Heal up quick!

[Crankin]

You are tough!

[twin]

Wow what a ride and one you will remember. Have many more happy andfun rides. I noticed your on the Surly forum. Good choice of bike!

[Psycler]

Way to go, getting back on your bike and finishing. That's a real trooper.

[marni]

Congratulations on finishing and on your spectacular half time entertainment.

If you can find any aconite salve or lotion at a natural food store, that will pretty much eliminate the bruising and ease the pain.

Gravel, wet dry or in any shape is nasty stuff and not to be trusted.

too bad about your bottle cage, but at least you and the bike are in operating condition.

I'll never forget the telephone call from my son when we were living overseas, his one and only question was if his tetanus shot was current. When I asked why he sort of hemmed and hawed and then admitted that he had hit some gravel on his mountain bike, killed the bike, broken his wrist and had bleeding and requiring stitches road rash from his arm pit to his ankle. He was still picking bits and pieces of sand and gravel out of his cuts a month later. He gave up road biking and took up graf magraw( phonetic spelling and probably not anything near the correct spelling) or the special fighting style that the Isreali special forces use.

me? I'm just his mother so what do I know?

marni

[Catrin]

That was my very first experience with gravel :eek: I will be much more careful next time, this is where experience counts.

I don't seem to be bruising, outside of my knees, but the front/sides of my leg are sore to the touch. So I am just not touching them :) No soreness riding or anything - I took a gentle 9 mile ride this afternoon just to stretch my legs. I would have ridden further but they were having a bike race at my favorite park and couldn't get to most of my route there.

If I had gone to my usual country roads it would not have been a "gentle" ride - and it didn't seem a good idea to go another 25 miles today. I found even more cuts than I had realized I had - more scars to make up stories about :D

Marni - I have no children but I am sure that it is never a good feeling to have your kid call and ask if his/her tetnus shot is current!

[tharley]

Great recovery Catrin! I did a big organized ride this am and crashed 1.5 miles into it. I also got help to extract me from the bike. :eek: However, my pride and knee hurt so bad that I just turned around and went back to the car. That's the short story.

[Catrin]

Great recovery Catrin! I did a big organized ride this am and crashed 1.5 miles into it. I also got help to extract me from the bike. :eek: However, my pride and knee hurt so bad that I just turned around and went back to the car. That's the short story.

Oh my, I hope that your knee is feeling better today!

[Crankin]

I have found Arnica gel really helps with healing from bruises and soreness, crashes, etc. Right now, I am applying it studiously to my shoulder that seemed to have sprouted a bruise after walking 3 miles back from the beach in Spain with a very heavy bag on my right side. Thankfully, I think all traces will be gone next week, when I will be wearing a sleeveless dress at my son's wedding reception.
Marni, I think your son is related to mine...

[MommyBird]

Gravel scares me, even on a mountain bike.

I had a "This can only end in tears" experience last summer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QkurL3HPSA
See around 2:30 in this clip if this doesn't sound familiar.
This Bartok the Bat line has been a family favorite for years. Whenever someone gets ready to do something dumb that has a high probability of causing pain and injury, someone in the family usually says this line. Such as stacking two or three chairs to change a light bulb or using the wrong tool for a job.

I was sight seeing with my husband and we had just finished a small hike and were getting back on the mt bikes. It was very hot and we had put our water bottles in our pockets. I forgot to take mine out and noticed it as I was pedaling on asphalt heading towards a gravel road. I reached down to get it out with my right hand but it was in my left pocket and I could not physically remove it so I switched to my left hand. This is the point where that fateful line crossed my mind but I couldn't help myself, I had to keep trying. I got the bottle out and was navigating it towards the holder when I noticed I was just about to reach the gravel. At this point I panicked, squeezed the right brake and you can imagine what happened next. I didn't have gloves on because this was a sight-seeing ride and so I was picking gravel out of my palm and my knee was a bit banged up. I couldn't remember the last time I had fallen on a bike on the road but I came up laughing. I brushed off and rode the 10 miles back to the camp site.

This Saturday I overcame my fear and followed my husband on a packed but thick gravel drive on my road bike. No problems! The only bad part was that we stopped to fill our water bottles and when he handed mine back I found out why he's been complaining about his gloves developing a life of their own. The smell about knocked me over even if the gravel hadn't!

What a blessing that you were at low speed and had a pit crew at hand to help you out. I am sure you more than redeemed your dignity when you picked up and kept going.
I healed up fast and hope you work out your tweaks, bruises and abrasions quickly too. Glad to hear the major equipment is okay as well.

[TrekTheKaty]

Way to keep going! I promise your next organized ride will be less eventful (I hope)! Cyclists are nice people aren't they? :D We've all been there.

My husband says my specialty is wiping out in front of large groups of other cyclists. I've never seriously hurt myself, but I now know to fall left so I don't bend my derailleur (Lightning's first visit back to the LBS for his tune up--"Um, has you're bike been--on the ground?" Yes, thank you for asking :D)

PS. You might have your bike checked over to make sure you didn't damage anything. Better than getting stuck on the side of the trail on your next ride.

[TrekTheKaty]

Gravel scares me, even on a mountain bike.

I had a "This can only end in tears" experience last summer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QkurL3HPSA
See around 2:30 in this clip if this doesn't sound familiar.
This Bartok the Bat line has been a family favorite for years. Whenever someone gets ready to do something dumb that has a high probability of causing pain and injury, someone in the family usually says this line. Such as stacking two or three chairs to change a light bulb or using the wrong tool for a job.



My saying is, "It's all fun until we end up in the emergency room." That usually gives everyone pause.........

[Catrin]

PS. You might have your bike checked over to make sure you didn't damage anything. Better than getting stuck on the side of the trail on your next ride.

Thankfully it didn't fall over on the right side - the only thing damaged was my water cage & rode for 10-11 miles right after it happened, and another 9 yesterday. Thankfully I did need to go to the LBS yesterday to have them check out a saddle problem and they said the bike looked fine :)

Good thought though, I probably would not have done that if I hadn't needed to go for another reason. I will be glad, however, when the soreness in my leg goes away. At least it doesn't hurt to ride, or walk, or run...just to touch the front/sides of my lower leg? :confused: Oh well, it is a small price to pay for having learned the valuable lesson of the treacherous nature of gravel....