High-Speed Crash or I am a Lucky Guy!

[rhughes]

My Garmin says my speed was 69.5Km/hr when I stopped peddling.

Since you're travelling at about 20 metres per second at that speed that would have been within one or two seconds of my impacting the ground.

I'm not sure what makes a high-speed crash but I'm sure that would qualify.

Here is the anatomy of the last second or two. It was on the twisting last few kilometre descent into Port Renfrew from Victoria. I will talk about some lessons learned but not in this post today.

It was a sweeping off-camber left curve on a bit of a crest--definitely not the place to have an outside line. The edge of the road was drawing closer. I thought "should I put my back brake on or my front?" The right answer is the rear of course which will decrease the turn. Doesn't matter anyway because it is now too late.

I see there is about one foot of loose, sharp stoned loose gravel on the shoulder and outside of that there is about a six feet (2 mtrs) freshly cut swath of grass and weeds and stuff. I decide that I will go thorough the gravel and head into the grassy stuff and stop. Bad idea?

The good thing is I had a plan and probably stayed loose because of that. It didn't work. I hit (good word) the gravel and the next thing I know is Brian E (and Neil?) is running toward me as I'm sitting up on the side of the road. Brian had the biggest wide eyes, with the most concerned look that I have ever seen looking at me (!) and he says "Are you alright Ritchie?". I am sure he expected "no" or worse. Not sure what I said other than it contained words that your mother might threaten to wash your mouth out for using. I know I did ask "how is my bike?". It’s the 28day old one--Giant Propel 2 Di2.

Everyone in the pack stopped to see what had happened and help me pick up the various pieces--at least the ones we found--thanks!! We didn't find everything but that's minor.

Brian performed his magic on the bent rear derailleur and both the wheels rolled ok, seemingly. Oh yeah--how was I? Other than the large pain above my hip, which I might not have mentioned, everything seemed ok. No cuts, scrapes, blood or broken anything (I think).

I got back on the bike and rode on. All the way to Mill Bay when suddenly my handlebars near my left drop decided to have a catastrophic failure by breaking in two. Great! I will now mostly coast the rest of the way to the ferry holding my bars together with my left hand so it doesn't go through the spokes of my front wheel. My other shoulder doesn't appreciate this very much.

I phoned my wife and she came and met me on the other side--she thought I was just "tired".

So back to the gravel. As far as I can tell--and I would like to hear from you if you saw it--and I don't actually remember but I think my front wheel upon hitting the gravel violently went left driving my handlebar into my top-tube and (later I found out) actually shattered both the handlebar and the frame. I have new of both coming which Giant is replacing at cost--that helps somewhat. I am hoping that Visa will cover the best. If they do--I will never underestimate the value of a credit card again (I don't).

How about my body? It kind of hurt a bit in more than a few places--but that didn't concern me until my wife and I saw the swelling and black bruise forming more than 24 hours after the crash. The Dr. says that I am a "lucky, lucky man!". Yes, I agree doc. He was a bit concerned that the impact was on my kidney side. I had to do the pee in the bottle thing (ya, I know) and they found some blood in there and told me to come back in 48 hrs. I did and it was much better this time.

I still have to go back in 2 weeks to make sure everything is ok--and then I will be totally cleared. Good.

So, I won't be going in the OB Crit this Sunday as I only have a cross bike right now. However, if you are out on tomorrow's Friday ride I will see you there. I should actually say "C" ride 'cause that/s where I'll be.

Ritchie

[IanWhit]

Yikes!! Glad you're OK, Ritchie.

[stevierooks]

Ya, I can vouch for that speed estimate. I came around the bend a couple seconds after you went down. I saw the snake trail you left in the loose gravel abruptly end - 30 feet from where you landed! Did you fly through the air for a while?

I would say you are a very "Lucky Guy". We were going down a sweet hill. I was sure that we were gonna need an ambulance. I was calculating the response time to our location as I approached you on foot.
But no. You were asking about your bike. It took you a while to get up, but you got up. Your "shattered" carbon bike absorbed a lot of extra 'crash energy' by breaking. It sheltered you an softened the blow. Im glad it broke (not really, I fricken loved that bike) Really glad.

So then I took some pics.

Rooks

[rhughes]

Thanks to Fort St Cycle (and Giant) for getting it all back together so I could ride in the OB Crit today! I know as a club we have a bit of an aversion to the race with our history, but would be great to see more of you out there having fun!

Ritchie