How quickly things change

Wednesday was the 4th of July, for those of you without calendars, or still hiding under the couch because of all the explosions you've been hearing this week. Seriously, I don't know what gives with the people in this city but they just don't seem to ever get enough of making things go bang. I mean it's not like they are even blowing something up (like a coke bottle or a shoe) they just set of firecrackers almost constantly for a week around the 4th of July. I blame the music. If weren't all listening to songs about "bombs bursting in air" they probably wouldn't be doing these things.

Anyway, that's not the point of this post, I'm mostly writing to say that I'm still alive. I've just been busy since going down to San Diego apartment hunting (the photo is from the SDSU campus). Since then I've been trying to get as much research done as possible in the limited time left, as well as ride and race and generally enjoy life. Because of that I was out at a race on Wednesday, a criterium in a little college town an hour south of Minneapolis.

The race itself was quite good, very warm, which seems to suite me better than a lot of my teammates. I think at least four of them may have become severely overheated during their races, which sucks. My race was going pretty well, at least the first half was. things were fast but I was able to stay near the front. At one point I was able to make a really nice attack off the front and I kept a good 10 meter gap for a full lap. Unfortunately the hill in the course slowed me down after that lap. It also seems that that was when the pack chose to chase me down at full speed, because my gap closed in no time flat. Unfortunately I was swarmed by the pack on both sides, something that I wasn't expecting. I was even less prepared to have my handlebars hooked, an action which shot me to the ground rather quickly. It was pretty much an unavoidable situation when it happened; oddly enough it was a teammate and good buddy who took me down.

So now I've got the largest road rash I've ever had, right on my left ass cheek. I also scraped up my shoulder and elbow a little. But all in all the bike and I came out alright. I'll be riding again this weekend but not likely racing for another week or so. I'd share a photo of my ass that Deirdre took; she said it was so I could grasp the extent of the road rash. It turns out I need a 6" x 8" Tegaderm bandage to cover it. I'm just so glad that I a former teammate told me about those, otherwise this situation would be a lot less comfortable.