Flashback... 1994

I try not to have too many of these, but they're usually interesting when they happen. Anyway, this past weekend while getting ready to keep working on the bathroom I pulled out some old work clothes knowing I'd be getting drywall-dirty pretty quickly. I pulled out and donned my old 1994 Holland100 Century t-shirt... FLASH!!

I was on the first day of vacation for a week in Chicago. I was staying at my big brother's apartment in Bucktown. Back then, there was still quite a few riders in his circle of peeps. My other brother was also down there as well. We all with several others headed out to Palos Hills as they're the closest "real" trails in the Chicagoland area. There is a light on-off drizzle with long bouts of sunshine. I'm equipped with my Specialized Rockhopper XC Expert with Softride Suspension Stem and my Bell "Mushroom Cap" helmet. Since we really didn't know the trail very well, we hooked up with another guy at the trailhead to help us through.

We're swooping through the trail and are a ways out. We take a little break and the guy we met at the trailhead and the younger of my two brothers whiz on down the trail. I decide to follow and catch them so I start down the decent followed by one of the local Chicago riders. I get to the bottom of the hill and am staring at a root and weird form at the bottom of the hill. Next thing I know I'm in the air and then... WHAM-THUD!!

I'm on the ground and I can't find my right arm running through the standard checklist... but I can see and hear a lot of activity around me. "Your bike looks OK!" Bite me... where are my arms! They're suppose to be waving in front of my face, but no dice. I can feel it hitting things and tingling and I can see my left hand... wait, there it is flailing over to one side... not where it is suppose to be. I try to reach over to grab my right arm but my big brother is stopping me from doing so, so I muscle out of his grasp and catch my right arm with my left hand and draw it to my chest. I can feel othe odd sensation of my noggin recalibrating my right arm... it is on your chest. I relax a little bit. Next thing I hear is, "Riders coming!" And I try my best to scoot off the trail. I think I was also getting dragged off, but I still didn't have all my senses about me yet.

Slowly I get up and pop off my helmet... or what's left of it. The crash pretty much blew 25% of the front of the helmet off. I evidently landed on my face and right shoulder. The two bikers that were coming up on the trail were pretty new to the whole scene. Neither was wearing a helmet and one of them even asked if he could buy mine off of me?! Crazy. Anyway, we headed back to the trailhead to get back. Numerous times I was asked if I needed/wanted to go to the hospital to get checked out, but I felt fine so I waved it off.

After getting back to the trailhead, my brother mentioned that he thought I did't quite understand the severity of the injuries I had sustained and directed me to look at my reflection on on e of the car windows... d'oh! d'oh!! My face was the size of a watermelon... or so it seemed. I still didn't go to the doctor and just spent the better part of the rest of my vacation week resting and healing. Yippee, what a great cycling vacation.

When I got back home, I headed for the bike shop for a new helmet. I told my story while there and was scolded about not having eyewear and could have easily lost my eye in that kind of crash. I left the shop that day with the new helmet, some new eyewear, and a bit to think about.

I visited the doctor the next day.

So how does all this relate to the 1994 Holland100 Tour? The tour was the first nervous ride on a bike since the accident; 6 weeks had passed. I planned to do the 36-miler to get used to the bike again and gain some confidence. But at the start, I ran into a guy that worked at the same company as I did so we rode together. Since he was doing the 65-miler... so did I. The pace was slow and comfortable with few incidents. I learned about control and patience. Two things that keep me safe to this day.