June 23, 2006, Track Racing (opportunity missed)

I had devoted the last six months of my training and racing towards specializing in the track discipline of the 500 meter time trial (a race of less than 40 seconds), with the hopes to win or medal at the Nationals in August. Although there had been three previous weekends where the Arizona riders hosted a track meet in San Diego this year, I skipped those to keep my expenses down. With just June and then the state Championships in late July as the only remaining opportunities, the June trip would be the first opportunity to see if my dedication had yielded substantial improvements over last year's times and hopefully show if I had the caliber needed to justify a trip to Colorado Springs on August 9th.

To this end I had been training on my track bike with the setup that I'd be using in the 500 for five to seven days out of the week, interspersed with an occasional race on my road bike or a time trial training day on my time trial bike. I had been able to increase my smoothness where I could pedal 175 rpm while in the tucked aero position without bouncing, when using my small training gear. I'd been able to get my top speed close to 40 mph, also in the aero position, when using a larger race gear. I had spent several days improving on techniques to shave time off the critical standing start and knew I had made big improvements there. I was able to avoid illness during the latter part of the season and keep a somewhat regimented training program on track. So it was all coming together as well as expected for the resources available (it would have been nice to have a nearby track, but that was not the case). So on Thursday I did my last hard training ride with some good roll out sprints on the track bike. Then it was just easy recovery rides on Friday and Saturday before Sunday's big test.

Where we are located in Tucson, at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Kolb Rd., there are not many options to choose routes for a bike ride which starts from here. One could proceed West on the Interstate frontage road and head towards the South edge of the city, but one encounters frequent stop signs and stop lights, and it's a long way out before you get to some road without these interruptions and all the roads have pretty heavy traffic on them. Another alternative is to head East on the shoulder of the Interstate (75 mph speed limit) and then pick some routes North or South from the next exit at Rita road; as this takes you away from Tucson proper, one does not encounter roads that are as heavily used, except for the unnerving riding on the Interstate itself. The other alternative is to head North, but to do so, one must ride on Kolb road, which for the first 2.7 miles from the Interstate to the next major intersection has no shoulder. Since this is a four lane road, there is room to share it with motorists and there is a "Share the road" sign just North of the Interstate.

So my best compromise has been to take Kolb road North and then head East from the first intersection where I can then ride shoulders or bike routes until I must at some time head South again on the return route. I'll usually take Rita road South, which is the next intersection down and ride the Interstate shoulder back to Kolb road to return home. Both Kolb and Rita are 4 lanes, however I've discovered that there are always those drivers out there that don't want to share the road and get down right belligerent in expressing this displeasure. Almost every day, someone will blare there horn right in my ear to let me know they don't like me on "their" road. More will swoop closely by me as they pass, trying to scare me off my bike, especially if I'm hugging the right side of the lane. This has caused me to take an approach advised to me by the local highway department to ride in the center of the right lane and this has proven rather satisfactory (details at http://CaloriesMadeSimple.com/traffic ). So although I now get much more clearance from passing motorists, many still don't like me on the road and make sure I'm aware of it.

On my Friday morning ride, I was heading North on Kolb Rd between I-10 and Valencia as I do most every day. That day I had one car honk at me soon after crossing the Interstate and soon thereafter two instances occurred where vehicles came right up to my rear tire. The last one was a large Cadillac and after 10 seconds of observing him there, I sat up, turned around, and motioned with my left hand to proceed into the left lane which was totally vacant, and then he did. So I'm mentally switching gears to communicate with the drivers that I know are toying with me rather than my usual practice of considering every motorist a deadly enemy. I was almost half a mile from Valencia (2.1 miles North of the I-10 turn off and only 3.8 miles into my ride) when I saw a red vehicle coming straight up the right lane. He got closer and made no motion to move to a position that was not dead center in the lane. About half of the cars will zoom right up to me and then move over into the left lane at the last possible moment at full speed, often when another vehicle is tail gating them. At first I thought I was going to have another one of these intimidating encounters and expected him to creep up on me when BAM I'm flying through the air. The sudden impact with his front bumper instantly collapsed my rear wheel, tearing the air dam under his bumper completely off the vehicle, which sent me rolling over his hood on my back. At that instant he made a fortunate decision to move to his left, (his right fender has paint from my frame on it as well as the fender being broken) and his rear view mirror crashed into my body, destroying the mirror. But at least this action prevented him from continuing straight over me or sending me over his roof. There were no vehicles in the left lane at the time, so there were no other vehicles involved. This happened at 9:52 a.m.

The driver was also from Voyager RV park and claimed he was doing 45 mph when he hit me. My bicycle computer shows that I was doing 21.4 mph at the time. The driver was 91 years old. He stated that he was not paying attention, looking at the scenery when all of a sudden I was in front of him. Just before impact, I heard him blare on his horn, probably a panic reaction on his part. Officer Judd on his accident report incorrectly stated the posted speed limit at 50 mph, when in fact it is 55 mph. Imagine if the driver had been doing the typical 60 mph plus that most motorists do on this road. The officer cited the driver with a violation of 28-701-A "Failure to control speed to avoid an accident".

Even if I had seen it coming and moved further to the right, he would have side swiped me and my injuries would have been similar or perhaps worse if my body took the full force rather than the bike, possibly breaking my left leg, hip, and/or shoulder. My only alternative if I could truly foresee what was about to happen, would have been to voluntarily dive myself over the curb and into the desert; still producing injuries and the driver would probably have just continued on his way, thus again providing no statistics that this road is dangerous for cyclists.

My right elbow was bloody and bruised with swelling occurring immediately, but it was still functional. I had bloody scrapes on my right shoulder and most of my right flank was hamburger. My lower back was sore, but my biggest concern was my jaw, as my teeth didn't meet properly and there was pain in the hinge. My neck was stiff. My helmet was completely smashed at the rear with no damage on the front.

Noel picked me and my bike up and took me to the hospital to get things checked out. After three hours there I had still not seen a doctor and when we asked how much longer it was going to be, we were told that we were next. During the last two hours of sitting in the patient room, not one nurse asked if I was comfortable or in pain. No one had touched my wounds to clear out the debris. I needed food and drink, but the nurses just chatted together at their counter. After three and three quarter hours of waiting and no doctor, we asked again and they said that a doctor was on his way to the hospital (this is St. Joseph's, a pretty big hospital in Tucson). I figured Noel could clean my wounds and there was probably nothing they would really do about my jaw, so we decided to cut and run without ever seeing a doctor. Hopefully everything will heal itself properly.

On my bike, the rear wheel has a totally destroyed rim and the tire and tube are shot. The expensive custom built racing frame has some dings in it, the drop outs are slightly out of line, and it's fancy paint job is now missing large chunks in several places. Upon closer examination, almost every tube is bent or dented in some fashion, so it is totalled as a racing machine and the carbon fiber fork shows stresses, so it is also shot. The bike is probably ridable, but it's time line of impending fracture is unknown and it is most certainly not true. The handlebars and seat suffered some scrapes, but still usable, although not in their pristine condition previous to the accident. Most of my clothes and the helmet were destroyed.


For the severity of the circumstances, I actually came out of it rather well. My lower back was hurting the most (when working a bit out of the saddle) when I went for another bike ride on my road bike at six in the evening (not on Kolb road). However, as the night progressed, my body became stiffer and sorer. The muscles in the upper part of my thigh hurt too much to lift the weight of my leg and I'd need those muscles to do a good 500 time trial. Since I was riding a fixed gear (no coasting possible) at the time of the accident, when the rear wheel locked up it also locked up my legs violently; this plus getting the bike instantly whipped out from under me apparently put some stresses into the leg muscles, making them sore later on. My neck got stiffer and my lower back hurt more and I only got three hours of sleep. I decided that this was going to be too big a handicap to really demonstrate on Sunday as to how good my form was and canceled going to San Diego and save some expense as well. If I can heal quickly enough and do some time tests on the local flat roads, I may be able to decide if Colorado Springs is still a viable consideration. The State Championships in July will hopefully still be a go, as the competition is pretty low and it would be an easy win. It will be the last opportunity of the season to race on a track and possibly my last race of the season if the Nats aren't in the picture.

Accident scene, Northbound Accident scene,
looking South towards oncoming traffic.
Right curve just before impact		 Imagine having this come around the bend
and hit the side of your body

Cracks in the road
Must ride out, can't ride center		 Gutter problems
cracks into roadway,
cement unlevel		 Joints between Asphalt and Cement
often unlevel or missing filler


Two other cyclists have been hit and seriously injured over the last three years on this same stretch of road, requiring several weeks in the hospital. There have been no changes by the highway department, even with many demands by cyclists over the years; I'm hoping this will change soon. The EMT from the fire department that showed up to help me said that they are out on that section of Kolb about once a month due to a bicycle accident, although most have fortunately not been serious enough to warrant a police report, so no official statistics as they don't seem to report these to the highway department.

Update June 24th
Two areas of my thigh muscles on both legs are hurting to the point that they can't raise the weight of the leg itself, so it was probably a good idea to skip the race on Sunday. My neck has severely stiffened up and so trying to ride a bike would be problematic, so skipped any riding today. A new pain across my ribs just below the breast and down to the lower rib cage when I put down force on my arms would make it painful to support myself in a bike riding position. I've discovered some new bruises on both shin bones. I'm moving pretty slow and stiff and at this point wonder if I'll be in good racing form anytime during this season, but time will tell.

I have to keep telling myself that I'm actually pretty lucky not to be dead or in the hospital with multiple broken bones, but it's still not fun. I was shopping at bike shops looking for a new rim and when the proprietors would see the rim and hear the story, they were amazed that I was walking around normally.

Update June 25th
Still stiff and not much improvement from Saturday. I was able to get 5.5 hours sleep before getting bed sore on the one side I can still lay on. The sides of my neck are pretty sore and the lower part of my chest feels bruised. However I'm fully mobile and capable of normal day to day activities. By afternoon, things had loosened up a bit so I went out and did a one hour easy ride on the road bike. The back was feeling better if I didn't push it, legs could push on the down stroke, but painful to do an upstroke. I didn't want to stress anything and do more damage, so no other problems were realized. The jaw is still feeling a bit out of whack. It felt good to be out in the sunshine realizing that things could have been much much worse.

Update June 29th
Still a bit stiff and not feeling as fast as I should. The jaw is still feeling a bit out of whack. Scrapes are scabbing over nicely. The legs are getting better, but some muscles still hurt under the right circumstances. Still some weird aches here and there, tail bone hurts under strain. Hopefully everything will subside on it's own with time. I was hoping to defend my lead in the Tucson Criterium series coming up on Saturday, but I don't think I'll be in full enough form to make it worthwhile.

Update July 1st
My lower back is still a bit sore, so I skipped today's race. I rode out to the course to watch my event.

Update September
A good friend of mine that has been working on making this section of Kolb road safer for several years, took my rear wheel to a transportation meeting the day following my accident. It is very likely that this had an influence in addition to the previous pleas from both he and myself over the years, that this needed attention. The transportation committee has scheduled this section of Kolb Road to be resurfaced, re-striped, and re-dimensioned with bike lanes on either side with work commencing on December 1. Instead of the 14 foot left lane, a 12 foot right lane, and 2 foot gutter, it should become 2 11 foot lanes, a 4 foot bicycle lane, and a 2 foot gutter, with a reduction in speed limit as well.



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