Crash

In my 7 years of bicycling roads, I have been lucky to avoid crashing.  I will not count a few times falling over trying to stop or dismount and getting my foot tangled.  These are merely "falls" (and none causing notable injury) rather than an actual crash.

My luck ran out 28 September 2013, when I toppled while descending a mountain road.  Fortunately, my injuries did not include anything serious or lasting.

The ride started normally.  I met my friends Atri, Krishna, Prashant, and Shiva early near home and started off on a challenging route.  One of the climbs was the infamous Bohlman - On Orbit.  At the top of that climb, there is a one mile dirt trail that connects to Montevina Road on the other side of the mountain.

We all started descending together, but got spread out, with Atri and me at the back.  At some point I thought I heard an unusual hissing/scraping noise.  The descent was steep and fast, so there is usually a lot of wind noise.  And since the brakes are engaged to keep the speed in check, those add noise too.  Still, the noise I heard was bothersome so I stopped and checked to see if my brakes were fine, which they were.

I continued on and started hearing the noise again.  I could not figure out what it was.  Soon I felt the handling of the bicycle was not normal, so I started slowing down.  I decided I should stop again.  As I was slowing, the road turned sharply to the left.  As I leaned into the turn, I felt the bicycle start to slip from under me.  It happened fast, but it seemed like slow-motion to me.  I tipped over to the left, slammed to the pavement on my left side, and slid to a stop in the middle of the road.

I laid there staring at the sky, dazed.  Fortunately, Atri was behind me.  He stopped and helped me get up.  He picked up my bicycle and got it and me off to the side of the road.  I was still dazed, and it took a while for the situation to register.  I had a pain in my left hip, and scrapes in multiple places.  Atri happened to have three bandaids in his bag, so he put them on my three deepest scrapes – two on the side of my knee and one on my elbow.

Fortunately my helmet kept the side of my head from hitting the road.  There was a deep gash in my left glove.  I must have place my hand down to absorb some of the impact.  But no skin was broken on my hand underneath, so the glove took all the damage.  I was mostly worried about my hip.  I forced myself to walk around to evaluate it.  It was hurting, but no sharp pains.  It seemed clear that I did not break anything in my hip.

We examined my bicycle and saw that my front tire was flat.  That explained it.  The noise I was hearing was the tire deflating.  Once enough air was lost, it had no traction on the left turn, hence I went down.  Atri nicely had me sit while he replaced the tube.  We both checked the tire to see if we could find anything still embedded in it that caused a puncture.  We could not, so we pumped up the new tube and continued the descent.

Futher down, we encountered Krishna coming back up the check on us.  We explained what happened and continued.  I did not have to pedal on the descent.  Once we reached the flat section at the bottom, I found that I was able to pedal without pain.  We met the other guys who were waiting.  We explained to everyone what happened.

I decided that I would abort the ride and head back home.  I told the other guys that I would be fine by myself, so they should just continue their ride.  They seemed a little reluctant at first, but I insisted.  So we parted and I headed towards the unpaved Los Gatos Creek Trail.  By coincidence, this was the first time I can remember that I forgot to bring my cell phone with me on my ride.  I was planning to ride to Los Gatos and have Vaishali pick me up, but I had no way to contact her.  So my plan instead became to ride the remaining 9 miles home (slowly).  The route would be mostly flat so it would not be a problem.

However, after a quarter mile, I could tell my front tire was becoming soft again.  I stopped and confirmed it.  I had another spare tube, but there would be no point replacing it.  Clearly there was something sharp embedded in the tire.  My only reasonable plan would be to walk my bike to Los Gatos and borrow someone's phone to call Vaishali for a pick up.

The walk on the trail was three miles, and I pushed my bicycle.  I could walk fine, so it was no real problem.  One cyclist coming opposite on the trail stopped and asked if I was alright, seeing that I was a bit bloodied.  I explained the situation and said I did not need any help from him.

I continued walking and got off the trail in downtown Los Gatos.  I knew that a lot of other cyclists congregate here so it would be a good place to find a friendly fellow cyclist to borrow a phone from.  Just half a block from the trail entrance was a popular coffee shop with a couple groups of cyclists outside.  I parked my bicycle at a rack and asked the nearest cyclist if I could quickly borrow their phone to call for a ride.  He did so without hesitation.  Fortunately I was able to get Vaishali on the first call.  I explained that I had a crash, but was not hurt seriously.  I told her that the bicycle was now unrideable so I needed her to pick me up.  She said she would ask my parents to watch the kids while she came. I told her which coffee shop I was at and that I would just wait there for her.

I had to wait about 30 minutes for Vaishali to arrive.  I alternated between sitting and walking around.  I chatted with the cyclist whose phone I borrowed and a couple of his friends.  After explaining what happened, he remarked that I looked to be in pretty good shape for someone who crashed on a descent.  I agreed.  Basically my elbow and knee were scraped and bloodied, but the three band-aids I had on hid the deeper scrapes.  The bruises were starting to become noticeable, as my hip knee, elbow and shoulder were all developing stiffness and pain.

Vaishali arrived and I loaded the bicycle in the car, and we returned home.  Both my parents were at home too, and they helped dressing my wounds.  The first thing I did was take a shower and wash all my wounds well with soap.  After I had taken my outfit off, everyone could see the size of the abrasions on my shoulder and hip, and they were bigger than they expected.  Now my mother's experience as a retired nurse would come in handy.  She brought some larger bandages that she had at her house, plus some more from the drugstore.  She put anti-bacterial ointment on the wounds before covering them with bandages.

I felt beaten up for a couple days.  The soreness of the scrapes was expected, but the main effect was the deep bruise on my left hip.  I could not lay on my left side for three weeks.  My scrapes were all mostly healed in a week.  I had no problems going to work, since I can spend my time mostly sitting in the office.  And all my bandaged wounds were concealed by my usual office attire.  Most of my co-workers did not suspect that I was injured.

Surprisingly, my clothes did not look too bad considering that I slid on the hard pavement.  It was a warm day, so I was wearing only a cycling shirt (thin, form-fitting polyester) and biker shorts (lycra).  There is a quarter-size hole in the shorts, and the area around it looks thin, but the shorts are still usable.   More surprisingly, there was not much sign of wear on the shirt.  The skin of my shoulder underneath the shirt got scraped, but the sturdiness and smoothness of the fabric meant it slid on the road mostly without catching or tearing. There was minimal scratching on the left torso side.

Looking back on what caused the flat tire, I guessed that the puncture must have happened riding the dirt trail before staring the descent.  Although my front tire looked like it was in decent shape, I checked my logs and found that the tire was 5 years old and had 8000 miles on it.  That is an OLD tire.  It is likely that the rubber tread had gotten so thin that there was very little protection to offer the inner tube.

Usually rear tires wear faster than front tires, since the rear is the drive tire.  So rear tires get replaced more often.  But this was a reminder that a bicycle must always have a good front tire since that affects overall stability more.  I put a brand new tire on the front wheel.

Atri said he noticed that I had slowed down considerably before the crash.  I subsequently tried to estimate what speed I had been going the next time I rode downhill.  I got down to the speed I felt I was at when I crashed and saw that it was 15 miles per hour.  On a steep road like Montevina, I usually descend at 20 to 25 miles per hour (more if the road is straight and smooth, less if it is rough or winding).  Though it may not seem like a big difference, a crash at 15 mph is much less catastrophic than at 20 mph.  Above 25 mph, it seems unlikely to escape without broken bones.

It did not take me long to get back on the bicycle.  After a few days, I started commuting to work by bicycle again.  But longer rides were more difficult.  And surprisingly, the issues were more mental than physical.  Having an unexpected crash injected a paranoia into my mind that is taking a long time to dissipate.  Riding on flat ground and going uphill are no problem.  Riding downhill was initially terrifying, and is still (more than 3 months later) still unnerving.

I was never a carefree descender.  I usually kept a slower speed that others when going downhill.  But now I find it uncomfortable to go past 20 mph, and there are many roads where I normally would easily be comfortable doing 30 mph.  The biggest difficulty is that I am now overly sensitive to noises and shaking coming from my bicycle.  And these are irrational fears, because I have been riding the same bicycles for years, and they are no louder or shakier than before.  On my first ride after the crash that included a downhill section, I got completely spooked when a lawn sprinkler went off as I passed.  The hissing noise it made was too similar to the hissing/scraping noise I heard just before the crash.  But I know that it is just a matter of time before I am fully comfortable on the hills I know so well.

I normally take good care of my bicycles and keep everything in good working order.  But now I will be monitoring the state of my front tire in a more formal way.  I will probably keep track of the mileage on it an replace it more often.

2012 Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge

100 miles, 11000 feet elevation

10:05 total time (8:35 on the bicycle)

5200 estimated calories burned

I have done only one century this year, which is fewer than usual.  I just have not had the time.  But I wanted to make sure to do at least one more, and I always try to do the Santa Cruz Mountains Challenge.  So I decided to do it again this year.  That makes this the fourth time I have ridden it.

Here is a video summary that the organizers published from last year.  I actually appear in it at the 0:40 mark.  We did the same route this year, so all the sights and sounds would be similar.

Route Map.

One concern I had was whether my back would give me problems.  I hurt it two weeks ago and was having back spasms for two days.  It was bad enough that I could not stand up straight.  The weird thing was that I did not know exactly how I hurt it.  Previous times when I experienced the same thing, it was after picking up one of my kids awkwardly or some similar strain.  It had been totally okay for a week, including during a couple training rides.  But this ride is much more intense and long that those, so I was apprehensive.

6:35am, 0 miles, 0 feet total

I woke up at 4:10am to get ready.  I had set my alarm for 4:15 but woke up on my own before it went off.  I prepared and left home at 5:40, arriving at the start in Scotts Valley at 6:20.  I parked, got all my things ready, registered, was under way at 6:35.  The forecast was for a warm day, but it was cool and foggy at the start.  That was okay for me because the route starts immediately with a significant climb which warmed me up. It became clear and sunny at the top as we broke through the fog layer.

After climbing to Summit Road, the view back down towards the start location shows the thick blanket of fog shrouding the valley.

About 10 miles into the route, I developed pain in my left knee, which is unusual.  But that is my bad knee, so an injury is within the realm of possibility.  However, the pain was never significant.  It was enough to be noticed, but not enough to bother me.  It was something I had to pay attention to.  If it got worse then I would have to consider abandoning the ride.


The remaining stretch to the first rest area was a relatively gradual 1000 foot climb with several up and down sections.  I had no problems, but kept a slower pace to conserve energy.

8:30am,  26 miles,  3500 feet total

I arrived at the first rest area and proceeded to consume some snacks.  I had a half bagel with jelly, two fig newtons, and a handful of peanut M&Ms.  Normally the peanut M&Ms are something I could just inhale.  But trying to eat them quickly at that time was actually rather difficult.  I heroically managed to finish them.  I wanted to keep this stop brief, and it was only 10 minutes.

The next section was a long downhill descent where I maintained 30 miles per hour for stretches.  It went into Big Basin State Park, where there is a gradual climb, a descent, and another small climb.  This led to the next rest stop.

10:10am, 42 miles, 4900 feet total

I wanted to spend more time at this stop because immediately following it was the hardest climb of the route -- Jamison Creek Road.  This time I snacked on zucchini bread, fig newtons, and Ritz crackers.  I made sure to stretch to loosen my back.  It ended up being a 15 minute break.

The first part of Jamison Creek is mostly flat.  However, once the road pitches up, it does it steeply and does not relent until the top.  I kept my pace very slow on the flat part, because I knew I needed all the energy I could muster.

Jamison Creek rises 1470 feet in just over 3 miles.  This is approximately the height of the top floor of the Willis Tower (formerly called the Sears Tower) in Chicago.  Imagine building a spiral ramp along the outside of the Willis Tower to ride a bicycle to the top.  To match the distance of Jamison Creek, this ramp would have to wrap around the building 18 times.  That means each revolution (going around all four sides of the building) on this spiral ramp would take you up 6 floors.  I managed to cover this distance/height in under 35 minutes, but most of the other cyclists did it faster.  I do not know if that helps to visualize the scale of the effort, but it was a mathematical exercise I pondered while riding up.

I had two questions as I was pushing myself on the climb: how would my knee and my back hold up?  Surprisingly, the knee felt no different.  Even though I was using all my leg strength to propel my self at only 3 to 4 miles per hour, this tremendous strain was not affecting it.

My back started out fine, but I started feeling some lower back strain.  This is normal, since the maximum effort to spin my pedals often creates some strain there.  But I was concerned given the scale of my earlier injury.  I actually felt the same strain on my last training ride.  That time I stopped as a precaution, but found that the strain went away immediately.  This time I thought I should push on, as long as I was not feeling the pain increase.  I was tempted to stop to just catch my breath, but I knew I would have been disappointed in myself unless that was absolutely necessary.

I eventually reached the top and finished with a strong push.  Quite a few riders were waiting at the top to regroup with the other friends they were riding with.  I pulled over to assess my situation.  My back felt fine, but I got hit with a sharp wave of dizziness and a sudden headache.  One of the ride volunteers was nearby and started to chat with me.  I talked to him for a few minutes, which also let the dizziness clear.  I then headed off for the remaining two miles to the lunch stop.  My leg muscles felt completely shredded, but I would soon be able to assess what sitting and eating would restore.

11:20am, 50 miles, 7000 feet total

The lunch was the same as what they usually have: make-your-own sandwiches.  I took two slices of bread, added a lot of mustard, two tomato slices, several rings of red onion, three slices of cheese, and several pickle slices.  I also took a few small boiled red potatoes and salted them well, and grabbed a cookie.  I also got a can of Pepsi to drink.  I always carry Tylenol in my bicycle and so I took that for my headache.  I rested and ate leisurely.

My plan was to decide at this point whether I had the energy to continue the 100 mile route.  If not, I had the option of truncating to the 100 kilometer route, which skips the last long climb.  My legs felt like they were getting their energy back.  My knee was feeling better.  My back was having no pain.  I decided I should finish the 100 mile route.  I sat for a few minutes after eating to make it a 30 minute stop.

The next stretch was a descent followed by a moderately long but not significantly steep climb.  My legs were clearly drained by the previous climbs.  I had to ascend at a slower pace (and lower gear) than I normally would.  Still, it was not bad enough to make me want to opt for the shorter route.

After a fast, steep descent, we reached the bottom of the final significant climb: Zayante Road.  This is a long (11 miles) climb but it is not continuously steep.  The first couple miles are fairly flat.  There are several very steep parts, but these are not too long.  In between those, it is only moderately steep.  My legs would not let me go too fast, so quite a few other riders were passing me.  I did struggle to reach the top, but I did it without having to stop.  The final rest stop was there.

2:40pm, 76 miles, 9900 feet total

Although the distance was only 75% done, all of the major climbing was done.  What remained on the way to the finish was a long descent followed by smaller climbs.  I rested and ate more boiled potatoes and drank a Coke.  It was a 20 minute rest.

Back to the same general area as the first picture, we see that all of the fog has burned off as the day warmed.

The final stretch had some short climbs to get to the final, long descent.  It was several miles down along with a significant amount of motor traffic.  The speed limit was 40 miles per hour, and I was regularly going 30.  Of course, that meant that cars needed to pass me.  There was not much shoulder, but drivers here are usually courteous to bicyclists, so there were no problems.

At the bottom, we had a couple short climbs to return to the finish.  Normally I would fly up these smaller hills, but my spent legs kept me at a crawl.  Riders continued to pass me, but there were several others that were in the same shape as me.  All along, I was passing a few riders too.  So even though most of the riders were stronger than me, there were still quite a few that were not at my level.

4:40pm, 100 miles, 11000 feet total

I reached the finish and noticed that my time was only 10 minutes slower than last year.  I expected to be even slower than that, so it felt like a victory.  I loaded my bicycle on my car, changed clothes, and headed inside for some dinner.  They had made-to-order burritos, I had one with beans, rice, and cheese.  And it was huge.  I took just a little salad with it.  Afterwards, I had some zucchini bread with a little ice cream.  After that I headed home.

My huge burrito at the finish.  I forgot to take the picture before taking the first bite.

I ate a lot of high calorie, low nutrition foods.  Normally these would be considered "junk food", but on a day with this much exercise they are better described as much needed "fuel". In the end, I burned more calories than I consumed on the day.

Normally I would be pretty tired and would get to bed early.  But this day was different because Vaishali and the kids were returning from their Illinois trip, and I had not seen them for three weeks.  I tried to take a nap but did not fall asleep, which surprised me because I had felt sleepy on the drive home.  Instead, I had some coffee and left at 9:30pm for the airport.  It took some time to get the baggage, so we did not get back home until after midnight.  I fell asleep immediately after getting home.  It was a long and tiring day for me!

I was really happy with my effort this year.  I had not done as much training as previous years, but my time was not significantly slower.  I had some injury concerns, but they did not manifest.  This ride might be the hardest century in this area, which is probably why I like it so much.  I think I will make a point to do it every year, as long as my training keeps me prepared enough.