Rubber Side Down

Seems like the pattern the last couple of weeks has been to back up a day of cyclocross racing with a day of mountain biking. It's fun, relaxed, and nice to get out into the foothills for some good riding, especially while the leaves are changing. Perfect riding weather! I went up to Bergen Peak with Brant and Nate and apparently it was cute girl hiking day. I'm all for it, except maybe next time I should try and bring some MTB'ing skills to even mildly impress anyone.

To be honest I felt a bit squirrely on the bike all day. It didn't matter the terrain or speed, I just didn't have it. My legs were a bit fatigued but nothing terrible. There may have been a part of it that was from crashing on my CX bike three times yesterday, but I don't know that that really played into things all that much. The climb to the top was pretty uneventful while passing by plenty of, yes, cute girls hiking. Seriously, who knew?! As got close to the top, around 9300 feet, it started snowing. Not hard, and it didn't really feel all that cold, but it was still coming down.

And of course since the only real reason we ride up is to ride down, that's when the fun usually begins. Usually because this time going down didn't just mean going down the hill, it also included two more crashes. The first one was a non-event. My rear derailleur got caught up on a rock while going around a corner and I went down. The second one, however, was definitely a spectacle. I was coming up to a technical part just before a switchback that Brant and Nate had already cleared and were on the path just below me heading the other way, but waiting for me. Somewhere in the middle of the technical section I realized I wasn't going to make it through so I put my foot down, which slid out from underneath me since it was on a slope. Then I completely lost my footing and somehow rolled but was bringing my bike with me because my other foot was still clipped in. As I was rolling I was headed straight for Brant who was perfectly in the way of this disaster. When the bike started coming over top of me and almost into him, he was able to grab it and chuck it over his shoulder, but not without getting knocked down and tumbling down the hill himself. Nate had the best seat in the house and watched it all happen and was laughing after he realized we were both okay. I would have laughed too but my left hand hurt too damn bad! It took a while (as in hours) before it started feeling normal again, but I think it's just bruised and no torn ligaments. I also have a few nice cherries on my legs, but they're in places that I'm pretty sure would be inappropriate to post on here. Most importantly of all of this, aside from nothing being broken and the bike being okay, is that it didn't happen in front of any of the cute girls hiking!

After the crash we rode the rest of the way down and were still able to salvage a pretty good day of bike riding. So now with five crashes in two days, I'm hoping that's all out of my system for a while. And even if it's not I'll still be back on the bike before too long. If I start crashing while I'm on my trainer though, I may have to reconsider!