Saturday XC: 13th or so out of 20 or 25. Not too bad, considering I'm pretty sure a lot of people
cut the course - I definitely passed two guys who were riding together (from the same school) twice
- and I'm pretty sure they didn't pass me back in between. Oh well, still fun, and with the fever I
was running, and the amount of coughing I was doing, I was happy with my results. course was very
technical, fun, kinda wet, about 14 miles long. One place out of points, but oh well, I was sick!
Saturday afternoon DS: I rolled all the doubles. I've never done 'em before, and saw too many people
who kinda knew what they were doing casing them anyway! I managed to qualify 8th/17 in C (lowest
category), so I was put in the ladder facing the top guy. D'oh! Hey, wait, where is he? He never
showed up to the next round, so I got a bye. sweet. The next guy I faced was jumping the doubles,
and I went too fast into the first one. Landed front wheel only, ended up losing tons of speed
between the jump and landing because I couldn't get the rear down. It was a short course, so the
quarter/half a second I lost was a big deal. Took the second double well, did the jump into the berm
(kinda sketchy, but fun), jumped most of the way over the table top, and was making up time, but not
enough to catch him. Oh well, still got 3rd, and a bunch of points. Nice!
Sunday morning STXC: Yeah, so I wussed out and didn't race. Fsck you, I was tired.
Sunday afternoon DH: Did 2 practice runs, one of which I walked the course up with my bike, one of
which I pedalled up on a fireroad. The third one I shuttled. There was one spot up top that was
steep, loose, and nasty, and I crashed in the first run, so I walked that, and there was an 8foot
drop to flat later on I walked too - there was an option around, but it was more than 45 degrees
from horizontal, and had nasty roots on it, so I didn't feel up to it.
Anyway, on my 3rd, race-pace practice run, I was just cookin', really making good time. I was
still on the top third or so, came around a corner with a 2' drop which I took at speed, landed
perfect, into a little rock/grass rolling bump, which kicked me airborne. I knew it would, and was
totally prepared for the air. Stayed low, flew probably 10 feet or so, and landed in perfect
positon to carve the right, then the left into the woods (off another small drop). Did I mention I
was really cooking?
Anyway, I landed perfectly, then the next thing I knew I was on the ground, with my head taking the
brunt of the impact, right below the helmet. Now, excuse the vagueness, but I really dont' remember
what happened here. Four people who were there ran over to help. Apparently my teammate who was
doing his run behind me caught up while I was still on the ground, or wandering around, or
something, but I totally don't remember seeing him.
I got a ride down in the truck (still super sketchy on the memory here), found an official who
called the EMT, and got the "whats your name? where are you? what day is it?" Well, I got the first
two right. The third, I had no clue. Yeah, thats a bad sign. I declined the ambulance ride, and made
the decision to come back to boston once everybody was done, instead of going to burlington's
hospital (don't ask me why - I wasn't thinking to straight then). I had a cut above my right eye,
but it looked more wide than deep.
I'm tired, so I'm going to end it up with the damage report.
4 hours or so in MGH (mass. general hospital) 4 stitches above right eye (yeah, wasn't so much wide
as deep and pulled apart) 1 nasty nasty shiner 2 c/t scans - one for acute brain trauma, one to make
sure I didn't crack my skull around the eye socket. Both negative, although the doc said it might
still have a small fracture, but nothing that will really have any effect on anything. 1 very sore
right shoulder 1 splitting headache 1 concussion 15 minutes of total memory loss, and another 30 or
so of real sketchiness. 8 years back on mental capacity today - at least I'm not quite as loopy as
yesterday. 2+ weeks off bike - and that means the rest of the college racing season 🙁
I can't stare at the computer anymore, so I'm done for now. Oh yeah - the only thing really wrong
with my bike is I cracked the left shift indicator and jammed it with grass. And my front tire has
an 8" long section that has grass between the bead and the rim, so I think my skinny not-really-2.1"
XC tires rolled over when I landed and just totally dumped me on the ground. Guess I need to buy
some DH tires for next time...
Jon "concussed" Bond