Bikes!

[breakingnews]

Arrrrgggghhh ... bad day at the races this morning. Full field (50 riders) in the cat 5 race at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Probably a half-dozen really inexperienced racers swerving all over the road; one caused a small pile-up pretty early in the race (halfway through first lap).

But on the final lap, it came time for breakingnews to pull an extremely amateur move and try to jockey his way along the outside of the pack into sprinting position, only he misjudged the finish line and did it about a half-mile too soon.

I was pulling around 32 mph when I see the rider in front of me cut back into the pack - only to discover that he was avoiding a triangular median jutting out onto the road way (a "right turn" median from an entrance onto the park road). I managed to get my front wheel up and over the curb, but my back wheel slammed into the median and exploded. I jumped another curb and, fortunately, there was a clearing in the woods and I just kinda cruised until I slowed down. Really, really fucking stupid move, but oh well.

At least I didn't go down - there were at least three other crashes today, one involving a guy on a unicycle who cut right on the park road without noticing the 50 riders barreling down the street. He took down 6 racers, one of which completely shredded his shorts. I think each of the four races going on today had at least one crash apiece.

But before that, pack averaged 24.5 mph, and I maxed at 43 mph! Fucking fast.

I guess I will be buying a new rear wheel.