Once again, the weather was the star of the day. It was pouring on our drive out to Ontario, but I was confident it would let up. It, of course didn’t, until we were lined up on the start line. The downpour made our field size pretty small. Several women who had driven all the way out turned around and drove home. As the whistle blew Bea took off, as was our plan. To have a break from the beginning. Little did we know that “break” would be literal…as in broken bones.
It was just the second turn, 30 seconds into the race when the carnage was forged. Our friend Joy lost control on that turn and did her best impression of superman, or superwoman in this case as she lay splayed out on her stomach with bodies and bikes sliding out around her. I remember not being worried or stressed out at all as I saw it happening because I was pretty far back and sure I had enough space to get around everything to the right. But unfortunately the wet road had other ideas and those bikes and bodies were sliding fast and I ran out of pavement and seeing that curb with some nice dirt and dried grass just beyond…I unclipped and headed for that. After landing I looked up and with dismay saw that Lea was down and she was in pain. Behind me Joy was on her stomach looking up like “what the heck just happened”, Jennifer V was on the ground and her front wheel had come off her bike and was circling around us like it had a life of it’s own. Katie and Bonnie were unhurt but helping tend to Lea, two other girls were off their bikes but unscathed. Basically half the field was out.
The medics showed up to help take care of Lea..I was worried because when someone tough is not moving around a lot and holding their arm…you know something is hurt bad. However, I felt a lot better when Lea said, clear as day “Lisa, can you do me a favor and pick up my Garmin, it’s right near your left leg”. Well darn if that wasn’t the mark of someone whose head was just fine. Once the medics arrived we headed over to the pit to see about getting back into the race. The officials informed us that our race was being stopped and restarted so the ambulance could get on to the course.
We all assessed our damages, and Joy showed us her not so pretty full frontal road rash that was actually showing up through her black kit. Lea got safely to the hospital, and the officials had us take a warm up lap to gather ourselves before starting us again. We were informed that we had 23 minutes left to race. So off we go again. I do not remember how I ended up on Pam’s wheel in a break, but I do know that I was going to try and stay with anyone what was getting away from the pack. I wanted to go around those turns ALONE if possible. So thanks to our awesome team I did find myself alone with Pam and that’s where we stayed until we lapped our group with about 4 laps to go. Pam told Katie and Bonnie to go out and try and get a break so we could have 1,2 and 3 locked up. That is just what Katie did and as we came into the final sprint Bea fought a valiant battle against young Jennifer for that 4th place. I am not positive of the final result, but I know it was close.
So I would like to thank this great team for keeping Pam and I out front. It was exciting for me to be there. Also, Lea has a broken forearm and wrist, but her spirit is alive and well and receiving some great drugs…I say it every time, but it’s true. This is the best group of women on wheels in southern California. Let’s hope for some sunshine next time around.
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