Tim Cronk 2015 El Tour de Tucson aka Crash Report
Why- For Fun- Been wanting to do El Tour since coming to Tucson but I didn't have a road bike (they dont allow aero bars) in time the last 2 years... The plan was to ride the Tour nice and easy this year after racing IMAZ... After the IMAZ DNF with no run , I upped my plan to ride harder but not all out , keeping my racing aggression in check while focussing on safety....With very little group riding experience , this was to be my first pseudo bike race .
The Day- 7AM start time , with temps in the high 40's climbing to the mid 70's.... There was 7000-9000 total riders but they were split up over 4 different distances , starting locations, and times... The 104 miler had 2500ish starters.... They had corrals based on expected time finishes but like a WTC swim line people do not seed properly and there was really no way to get near the front unless you get there around 4AM.. The did have an elite group but you must prequalify... I lined up at 6:20 and was in the expected finish time of 6hrs + and was way back from the front... Wearing my EN KONA Castelli kit over a black Desoto Skin Cooler shirt, I added toe covers with hand warmers, hand warmers in back pockets of Castelli top and glove... Was cold waiting for the 7AM start and about the first 45 min on the bike until the sun came up... The start was scary and very dangerous, everyone very tight and over amping , passing on the right/left/thru the middles with hardly anyone saying anything...Saw a few early crashes and lots of close calls... At 8 miles you hit a sandy creek crossing, dismount , run with bike 100-200yds , remount and go... At 48 miles as we approached the second sandy creek crossing I stopped at some porto-potties for a pee and took off my gloves and toe warmers while I was at it.... Remounted and rode for a few minutes on gravel sand , we then had an option to ride thru a short 6" deep running water crossing or dismount and carry bike across a small bridge, I rode thru the water, then dismount and another sandy run with bike exiting into a parking lot of sorts... I remounted and rode about halfway thru the parking lot then stood up to pedal and down I went like a ton of bricks on my left side... My right foot was not completely clipped in (thanks speedplay and sandy cleats)... Its amazing how hard you can hit the ground while not going that fast... Abrasions on palms, wrist, forearm, elbow, hip , shoulder (yep ruined my EN Castelli kit) , visor came off helmet, one bar plug came out, brake lever moved and bent, both front and rear brakes moved to rub wheels, and the chain was off... Took a couple minutes to pick up the parts and adjust chain/brakes... Even knocked my Power Meter silly , garmin file shows a spike to 2500watts which screwed up my numbers for that 5 mile interval and overall within the garmin file (TP and STRAVA which both get the data from Garmin are both smart enough remove and smooth this data) ...Banged up and bloody but OK... Got back on and about 5 minutes later I'm thinking Oh No I can feel my left clavicle... Did a quick inspection and range of motion and figured bruised or small fracture but not a break.... Carry on and don't crash again.... 5 minutes later I glance at my shadow and I see my 2nd extra tube from under the seat and above my flat kit has completely unfurled and is trailing me like a tail... WTF the hundreds of freaking people around and no one can say anything? Roadies ? The course was open to traffic but most intersections were manned by police... None the less at mile 55 and mile 65 we were stopped by the police at light... Then at mile 82 we had to stop for a train.... That makes a total of 7 complete stops during the ride... The last 2hrs were the most fun riding with the same 7-8 guys , all though there were only about 3 of us really doing the work , you could tell everyone was fading , I felt pretty good since I had ridden below my normal watts for that distance and did a good amount of pulling got lots of friendly Kudo's each pull.... Most of these guys really wanted to hit the "gold standard" of sub- 5hrs, quick calculations were showing we needed 24mph average, I knew it wasn't possible but we did come a lot closer than I thought we would averaging 22-23 for that last 15 miles...Finished in 5:02:30.. Heather was riding the 40 miler which started at Noon near our house... She finished in a little over 2 hrs so I hung around and waited for her to finish and then we went out for some food in downtown Tucson ... Note: Gabby Gifford rode the 40 miler on a recumbent and it took her 4hrs... I would imagine she is not doing to well..
https://www.strava.com/activities/436775412/overview
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/962952389
Nutrition- 2 bottles 48oz of GE and 5 gels, 1 gel pre-start and 4 gels in a flask (run flask from IMAZ)
Aftermath and What I learned- Ironically I crashed all by myself and quite possibly the safest moment of the entire day...Pretty banged up , bruised and sore, so I will stick with my initial bruised or slight fracture of the left clavicle, shoulder is stiff, swollen, black and blue but with full range of motion , the hip is definitely stiff as well..I moved back to Look pedals on my TRI bike and I'm done with speed play pedals on my road bike... I do not think that would have happened with my look pedals... But regardless of type of pedal always make damn sure you are completely clipped in before standing to pedal... I observed a guy stand to pedal thru and intersection and his chain either broke or came apart and his rear derailuer blew up as well... Surprised he didn't go down... My guess is a Quarq Magnet!
I'm on day 9 of NO running since the end of the season and today starts the 2 weeks NO biking!
Comments
Holy Tamales! It sounds like you kept your patented sense of humor and persistence through it all. Is that the same clavicle previously broken? Should;t you get it checked out?
First Jeremy (Withrow too?) wrecks his custom LG EN racing suit, and now you ruin that wonderful Castelli jersey. I'm thinking I should save those outfits for the trainer.
shoot.
have good healing.
yes I am on to all mountain bike shoes all the time.
Hope you have a nice holiday week and are back at it soon.
John.
The beginning of the race sounds crazy, I'm not sure I want to be around that type of madness. Sounds like a fun day though!
sounds like you are healing up good, let's get 2015 behind us and have a DNF & crash free 2016!!
Man. Glad to hear you are healing well and the Castelli is OK. Priorities!! I Started with the 6-something hour group as well and it is definitely chaos. Having done RAGBRAI, though, I knew what to expect. Also got stopped at intersections and the trains. I had a really difficult time with the fact that the food trucks never made it to the first half of the rest stops. Thanks to EN, I train fully fueled and I did NOT do too well with nothing except my emergency gel and peanut butter and water. I'm sure you didn't stop for the pancakes at mile 56, but they saved my life. Rode the second half 2mph faster than the first half.
Take care of the clavicle and enjoy some turkey over December. You should be fit enough to start a Jan OS. Oh yeah- I got a serious bruising in the nether regions several years ago when I tried to stand up and wasn't clipped in- on Look pedals. I rarely make that mistake now.
Heal quickly!
As promised to myself and held accountable thru this thread but made really easy after the crash , I did take my 17 days off running, 2 weeks off cycling, and 3 weeks off swimming...Started running again and made it almost 2 weeks of running (54 miles) before I couldnt take it anymore... I had only limped around a couple days due to the impact on my hip from the crash but running brought it back... After my last run I could barely walk for a couple days.... Stopped running, waited 2 weeks, could walk , cycle, etc but was not improving... Finally went to the Doc , which was 5 weeks post crash and 2 weeks post ZERO running.....
Shoulder- Diagnosis was a type 3 AC joint separation - Doc said we would have done nothing then and nothing now.... Getting stronger by the day , swimming and lifting, I am very optimistic.....
Hip- Not so good. Xray = Nothing , MRI = Intertrochanteric Stress Fracture (thats hip fracture of the upper part of the femur just below the femoral head... Its a stable fracture which means no surgery... But it was serious enough to have the Doc call me immediately to give me you better use crutches and no weight bearing activity for at least 2 weeks cause one wrong heel strike could break it and then you are completely f#c&ed kinda talk... So needless to say I stopped cycling , and all unnecessary walking, etc... Follow up to read MRI is on Tuesday next week...
What have I learned? Hips and Shoulders/Clavicles are not the same. The hip is kinda like the back and not to be messed with... There is very little blood flow to that area and with it being weight bearing heals very slow... Thinking back , if I went to the ER right away I would have known about the shoulder but I would not have taken a different path .... They only would have Xrayed the hip , since nothing showed on the xray , I never had an intitial concern about the hip , I would have taken the same path on that as well. However after I started running and developed that pain in the hip I should have gone in immediately.... We are certainly never wrong by being checked out but if I went to the Doc everytime I fell off my bike I would have spent my childhood at the hospital and would probably be dying of cancer from all the radiation exposure... Bottomline, barring not going to doc on initial crash, I should have at least taken the hip pain more serious 2 weeks ago.... It would have bought me 2 weeks of healing sooner and it would have eliminated the risk I was unknowingly putting myself in by riding my bike....
I'm lucky , I will heal , already bored out of my mind , but it beats the alternative :-)
WOW! That stinks! But after all I've read about your pursuits, you will be up and at it in no time. Get a good book...do that paperwork you've been putting off (if there is any!) and try to enjoy the down time. Heal up!!
Glad you are healing well - it has to be killin' you to be sitting still!
Happy New Year Tim - and please give my very best 2016 wishes to Heather!
Cheers,
Woody
Tim (and everyone else!),
I would agree your assessment- and thanks for updating us! You did what I see so many athletes do- and that is maybe take a little time off and then start back full bore. 54 miles in 2 weeks?! When you JUST took off because of a traumatic injury? Are you crazy? And then you say you stopped when you couldn't take it anymore. How about stopping when it's still hurting earlier on? I had a friend who just went through this as well. And so, so many others. (OK- re-reading this, it sounds harsh- didn't mean to- sorry! I'm just passionate about this subject)
Thanks for sharing your experience. As athletes, we need to treat our bodies well. And that means taking all the time off needed when injured. Or even better, slow down when that first niggle starts. Or for goodness sake, stop when there's actual pain. And when you start back, try a 5 min run or 15-20 min bike. If no pain, increase by 2 min run, 5 min bike. If no pain, advance a bit more. Pain? Stop again and wait.
I'm so sorry this happened to you and I hope you heal quickly.
Well I am taking this very seriously.... Heather has a plan for reintroducing running after a foot stress fracture which she did last year, very well thought ,out baby steps at first, run/walk plan that builds very slowly... I wont even start that run plan until I am completely pain free and have been cycling for a couple weeks first... Plan, guidance, confirmation, through the Doc ... He's a sports guy and gets it...