Every Fricken Friday Morning – PV Hills
New Kits out this morning!! Looked frickin awesome as we all rode out today. Brian from V7 was out taking photo’s of the new kits. Can we say that the paparizzi where after us in our new kits??? A group of about 8 broke away on the way back and Justin cleaned our clocks on the sprint.
Hill 1 – Joe D.
The Castle – Justin
Hill 3 – Durrant
Hill 4 – Joe D.
Hill 5 – Clint
Sprint – Justin
What a gorgeous day for a ride! Great turn out and no crashes so all is good.
There was talk of Justin making a run at the Triple Crown so a couple riders, Al and GC, were sent up the road early. Justin, Joe and others chased and for a moment it looked like they caught Al and GC but it was Gardner and Ben-Horin. So Justin and Joe went off again but it wasn’t enough. Al and GC held the gap with GC taking Hill 1 so the Triple Crown was safe.
On the return trip the group had to stop at the light at Mill/Curry. Justin had the timing right and nailed it the moment the light changed. He grabbed a huge lead and held everyone off taking the sprint.
Hill 1 – GC
The Castle – Joe D.
Hill 3 – Justin
Hill 4 – RJ
Sprint – Justin
Here’s the question of the day. How warm does it have to get before Kocher comes out of hibernation?
Let’s cut to the crash.
Southbound on Galvin Parkway just South of McDowell cresting the slight rise in the road. Kirk is on the front head down and hammering, new guy Chris on his wheel with Hoss in 3rd. GC in 4th position pulling a train and closing a small gap fast.
Kirk looks up and sees a rock boulder in the road. It’s right in front of him; he yells “rock” and swerves to the left. Chris has no time to react. He hits the boulder head on sheering his fork at the head tube sending him cartwheeling over the bars. Hoss swerves right somehow avoiding the rock, Chris and the shattered bike as it flies through the air.
CG and everyone else splits. Some are forced into the lane of traffic others sneak by on the right riding it out into the dirt.
Chris went over the bars hitting the pavement with his shoulder and his head. He ended up lying on his back mostly in the road. Fortunately he was conscious.
911 was called and the fire truck shows up then the ambulance. Chris seemed lucid at first but seemed to have trouble remembering things as time passed. Chris wasn’t looking good as they loaded him into the ambulance. I really hope he’s ok.
Of course the biggest question was “What @$$hole dragged that boulder into the bike lane?” which was quickly followed by the realization of how much worse it could’ve been. If there had been cars coming up behind us it would’ve gotten ugly. Or if we had been bunched up like usual more people would certainly have hit the deck. It was a terrible crash but we were lucky.
If anyone knows how Chris is doing please let us know. And let us know if there’s anything we can do. He’s new to the valley and doesn’t know a lot of people so a little support would likely be appreciated.
Hill 1 – Kirk
Castle – GC
Hill 3 – Kirk
Hill 4 – RJ
Sprint – Laurel pimped Geoff at the line.
These are all the pics I took. Apologies for the blurry ones, I’m not Ansel Adams.
The offending rock
Where it had been on the road
The bike
Chris
The riders and firefighters
Happy Valentines Day! Great turn out on a relatively warm morning.
There was a beautiful moon setting as we rolled down Oak. But by the time we hit 56th St. somebody poured on the gas splitting the group at Thomas (I think it was Thomas) leaving a smaller group contesting for Climb 1.
A road closed sign and tons of sand on the Castle climb and workers repairing the road atop Climb 4 provided some unusual obstacles.
Hoss missed the shot.
Climb 1 – Vlad
The Castle – Justin
Climb 3 – Joe D???
Climb 4 – A A Ron
Sprint – Chalmers
It wasn’t a good day for the birthday boys RJ and Jay. Jay had a tire blow out on climb 1 that sounded like a shotgun went off. Fortunately it was on the ascent and not the descent which would have been disastrous.
Then RJ threw a chain on climb 4. The chain got jammed between the crank and the bottom bracket and Mike had to muscle it out.
Joe took the first three hills but Clint wouldn’t give him the fourth. Vlad took off for the sprint at Curry but couldn’t hold off the charge as GC took the sprint off RJ’s wheel.
Beautiful morning for a ride.
Climb 1 – Joe
The Castle – Joe
Climb 3 – Joe
Climb 4 – Clint
Sprint – GC
And Aaron stranded a coffee.
