No blog posts in awhile here... Why? Because it's Nature Valley Grand Prix week! Every cyclist in about a 90 mile radius of the Cities has been out watching the best of the best compete in a series of races around the metro area.
The women's races have turned out to be the races to watch. I'm a little biased because I am a woman, but also because we all know United Healthcare is going to win for the men. They were expected to win. They are winning. Boring.
The women on the other hand, is anyone's game. Shelley Olds won it last year and is back to defend her title while Kristin Armstrong is back to reclaim the top spot she held for 4 years before taking a year off to have a kid.
If you've been following the Nature Valley races, you've probably heard about last night's crash in the women's field. Cyclingnews.com called it a "horror crash". That is not inaccurate. It was by far the scariest crash I've ever seen, including the ones I've watched on You Tube.
I'll skip ahead to the gory stuff, but highly recommend everyone read VeloNews and/or CyclingNews to read about the first 27 laps of the race. It was a really amazing race with great team tactics playing out.... until that damn last lap.
Fellow Birchwood racer, Marie, and I had rockstar seats in the bleachers about halfway between the final turn and the finish line. As the women were coming up on the bell lap, my eyes followed the leaders of the pack until I heard the woman sitting next to me gasp and say, "Oh my God! They crashed!"
I looked back to my left and saw an ENORMOUS pile of women and bikes. The pile literally spread from curb to curb and was at least 3 bodies deep in the middle. I've never seen anything like it.
I expected it to be like other crashes I've seen where people pop back up, check out their road rash, examine their bikes, and ride off. That wasn't the case here. Everything moved in extreme slow motion. None of the girls seemed to be moving off the pile of bodies. No one was popping up and dusting themselves off.
My eyes were immediately drawn to Kristin Armstrong. For one, her yellow jersey stands out, but also because she was in the center of the crash, at the very bottom of the pile of bodies, and screaming her head off. The scene reminded me of Nancy Kerrigan crying hysterically when Tanya Harding's boyfriend crow-barred her legs. There was Kristin Armstrong, sitting on the ground with her legs twisted awkwardly under a pile of wreckage, and screaming so loudly we could hear her over the announcers.
Eventually we could see the girls at the top of the pile wiggling around trying to get their legs free and work themselves out of the wreckage. It seemed to take minutes before the volunteers and medics realized that this was not a wreck that was going to clear itself up. (It was probably more like 30-45 seconds, but it felt like FOREVER before people started reacting to the scene.)
Finally a troop of volunteers sprinted down the race course and started plucking bikes and girls off the pile. I completely expected Kristin Armstrong's legs to be broken, but her teammates eventually were able to extract her and pull her onto her feet. From what I've read online, her ankle, ribs and elbow are a little jacked up, but overall she is still in one piece.
At that point Marie leaned over and said "Do you see that girl in the fence? She hasn't moved yet."
On the left side of the course, across the street from us, was a small blonde woman, laying on her side in the gutter of the street, her head pushed up against the fence that holds spectators off the race course. No one seemed to notice her as all the medics and volunteers were plucking girls and bike parts off the main pile, and tending to the dozens of other injuries spread across the street. The girl in the fence was not moving at all. We realized then that it was defending champ Shelley Olds.
From where we were sitting, I thought for sure she had a serious head or spinal injury. I could see her eyes were open and blinking, and when a medic finally came to check on her, we could see her mouth moving as she talked, but no other part of her body ever moved. She was eventually put on a backboard, then a stretcher and hauled off in an ambulance. I read online today that she suffered some rib injuries which is awesome news compared to what things looked like last night. Apparently my prayers for her did not go unheard.
Three other women were similarly put on backboards, stretchers and hauled off in ambulances. From where I was sitting, I couldn't tell who they were or the extent of their injuries. By that point, the entire street was full of ambulances, medics, teammates, support crew, photographers, etc.
The race was ultimately nullified which means we all have to pretend it didn't happen. Even as a mere spectator, it's frustrating to see how hard those women worked for 27 laps and know it doesn't count now. Oh well. I guess we should all be grateful that no one came out with any serious injuries (at least not from the injury updates I've seen).
Even so, I'll continue to pray that all the women recover physically and emotionally from last night's events.
Today I'm headed to Menomonie. It's been over a week since I've raced, so I'm going to do some amateur crits this afternoon and then watch the pro racers finish their road race. After last night, let's hope for an uneventful day!
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