WIPEOUT

ha ha ha ha WIPEOUT! Yea you know the beachboys song.

I had a great Easter morning with Austin and Angie. After church I dropped little man back at his mom's and I headed for Yuma,Va. to meet Angie at her parents for Easter lunch. I took the 29er with me since I knew we would be leaving there a tad early so she could go watch one of our friends do his first jump at Skydive East Tennessee. We departed around 2:30ish and I was planning on going to Warrior's but since I was so close to Bay's and I now have a season pass for the park I thought "I should take advantage of it". So I did. I arrived and saw A.Casey and his dad packing up after a ride and chatted for a minute. I got dressed and headed out at about half effort. Mark's car was in the parking lot and I was thinking maybe I might run into him. Half way through the new trail that the NTMBA built I got a text from Mark "where ya at? I will wait for ya". I met him in the parking lot after half a race lap and chatted for several minutes. I also talked to Bill that had just showed up for a ride too. After all the socializing I headed up the long climb to the radio towers. I rode it at a pretty robust pace and peaked then across the ridges to the fast insane rocky DH section near the fire tower. Just as I started down I passed a man and woman hiking, he heckled me with "don't crash". I thought please don't tell me he said that, dang......JINXED! I just got up to speed (over 20mph) and started around a right hand bend when I saw another hiker headed up. I moved to my right to avoid him and he likewise. I was carrying way too much speed for the curve to be on the inside of it and at the apex it pushed me to the outside bumping and skipping over the rocks. The brakes were no help since my wheels were constantly skipping off the ground. Inertia moved me left into a 12" deep rut and the front wheel just washed out, I was rebounding off the rocks and hard pack clay immediately. It happened so fast I had no time to react or counter anything. That was the HARDEST I have crashed in years. The hiker immediately aided me and wouldn't let me return to the bike after I kicked it off the top of me. Majorly bruised pride crashing right next to someone, totally embarrassing! After about 5 minutes I hopped back on laughing and hurting. He had this weird look on his face though and said all bikers should push this section but I assured him that I had ridden much worse, which in turn made the look even more nonsensical. I continued back to the car and took off my gear. I was really aching now, my chest felt as if a pulled or tore a muscle. It hurts more than anything right now. Anywho I managed to get a picture of my forearm. My hip, thigh and ankle are about the same. The Giro Atmos held up, just a big dent was all......no crack!

It looked alot worse before I got home and cleaned it up in the shower....let's get some more!

Later G........................