Endo

Today's ride was a beautiful trip through Ranch Santa Fe. We started out at UCSD and headed out. We had a total of 8 riders in the group today. We're definitely starting to gel as a team. Coach DJ gave spent some time with me strongly suggesting that I take it easy today. The plan was to do about the same mileage as last week but with many more hills. My mission was to save my strength until the last hill and then hit it hard if I still had gas.

The ride through Rancho Santa Fe was gorgeous. Beautiful shaded country roads with million dollar mansions on either side. Very little traffic, beautiful flowers, chirping birds and so quiet. The road was a lovely rolling thing. There was a little up to get the heart pumping and then some fun downhills. We even got to ride around a small lake. Really very nice. Afterwards the ride in the country we start heading due west back to the coast.

One other thing that Coach DJ asked was that Mike and I, the two biggest on the team, take the lead on the way back towards the coast on La Costa Drive where we would be encountering a very strong headwind. As the biggest physically, we are better able to cut through the wind and give the smaller riders a break by letting them draft after us. After that we could rotate back and rest. It worked like a charm, Mike, Oren and I took long stretches of the lead keeping a nice steady pace of 15-17 MPH and really ate up the miles. We finally hit the coast and turned northward up the coast.

It was all going fine until we got to mile 38 or so. I was about 12 inches off of Oren's back tire when something happened up ahead and someone hit the brakes. The slowing came back like a wave but I was the last to know about it. We all hit the brakes, but Oren's brakes were better than mine and I find myself nearly ramming him. I was slightly to his right between his bike and the side of the choppy road. No man's land. Struggling to control the bike, the inside of my front tire hits the outside of his back tire. I try to avoid knocking him down but I overcorrect and then

ENDO

My front tire folds under me and I hit the ground hard. Luckily, my trusty bike took most of the hit. I landed with the handlebar and the left pedal taking the brunt of the impact then I hit with my arm just below and to the right of my left elbow and my lower left knee. Mentor Jay made sure I got out of the road quickly and got me cleaned up. He decided that my ride was over for the day and called the support wagon to take me back to my car. Bummer but understandable.















Some chewed up handlebars















Scraped up pedals from the slide

I took the bike to the shop later that afternoon and it checked out fine. I had to realign the left handset (brakes, gear levers, etc), had them tighten the brakes and retape the handlebars. The tape had gotten pretty chewed up in the slide. I also had them inspect the carbon fiber frame for cracks it everything was fine.















Some Mexican roadburger















Ouch