The Incident

Last night’s mountain biking was crazy!

We pulled in and there were the most mt bikers ever! We asked a fellow female biker about the crowd and she mentioned there’s a time trial this weekend on the course we practice on. All the serious racers came that night to practice the course...AND there was a Wednesday night bike group meeting at 6pm to ride OUR course! We’ve never seen it this jammed.

Regardless, we had to practice. The first loop we were cautious like usual and made pretty great time, just under 19 minutes. The second loop we decided to start even though we knew the Wed night pack was just behind us. We were moving! Kristen kept a great pace and I would give her the updates on how close the pack was getting to me. It felt like we were being chased, which actually was great practice because we pushed hard and didn’t let up. We made it through the whole loop without anyone passing us and got our fastest time yet: 17 mins and some odd seconds!

The third loop…oh the fatal third loop. We were feeling so great after the second one, that we went into the third with confidence! It was 1.89 miles into ride when we approached the huge log we usually jump with momentum. The momentum is key and Kristen had lost her momentum moments before when a rogue biker came at us going the wrong way on the trail. Being the polite bikers, we pull to the side, but we lost all the speed. Kristen wasn’t at top speed approaching the log…she jumps it… she and the bike are in the air… then the bike comes down on the log… and Kristen falls down on the log … then the bike falls on her. Oh. Man. Not. Good. I saw everything in slow motion. Also, with our luck, it’s at the exact moment she falls, that three professional mt bikers are coming down the trail. They stop to see if she’s OK, which was really nice of them… but then proceeded to stay and watch the show…

I think I’ll let Kristen take over the story from here!