Last night we had a crash in the C4 race for the A group. It could have been avoided and I feel responsible for it happening. We were passing a small group of triathletes and then had to accelerate to make a corner. It seemed like at the time. We yelled to the riders that we were coming, we squeezed to the left and went around them. As Matt and I entered the turn, we didn't think to look back and make sure everyone got around safely.
The problem was the gravel on the corner. Harley didn't see the gravel until way too late and because of the confusion of the slower riders, that were at the corner as well, Harley slipped on the gravel at speed, and suffered some pretty bad road rash and a serious cut to his forearm.
When I caught up to him, he had some bandaging done already but needed to get to medical right away. We went to the new urgent care facility in Cochrane. The service was amazing, the facility is pretty much brand new and fast.
Here is the link to the photos I took of Harley. Here are the photos of Harley in the hospital.
If your stomach can handle it, check them out. His smile got bigger the more drugs they gave him. I spent some of the time in the bathroom spilling guts, especially after they froze the cut and cleaned off the excess ratty edges of flesh that could not be saved. Not sure what the dremmel tool was for, I passed out at that point. We got home after 1:00am with everything ready. Prescriptions filled, ice packs, guaze and a stack of cycling magazines to read.
So, this again could have been avoided. A better way of riding may have been to neutralize the group until the corner and everyone go around the corner safely that way. It was just one of those incidents that you don't think about and it goes to show, as cyclists, racers and friends, we always need to be thinking when we are riding and make decisions that trend to safety.
Thanks,
Dan
22 comments:
Harley had just picked up my TT race wheels yesterday afternoon for his weekend assault on Devon. Then, at 10pm I got a text from Dan they were in the Cochrane Emerg. Yikes, things change quickly.
Harley, I hope you heal up quickly and I am glad you used your forearm instead of your head to cushion your fall. I wish I had done that in Pigeon Lake 2 years ago. You're a smart man. Heal up and we'll hammer soon.
Dan, thanks for turning the Honda Odyssey into an ambulance and sticking with Harley right through it. The pictures have made me queezy and I will probably skip breakfast.
Chicks love scars with a cool story. Let's make up a great one and take it to the nightclubs to try out. Something about saving a puppy would work well.
Trev
That's brutal!!... Glad to see you smiling and relatively OK Harley. Take it easy and heel up fast.
I was in the B group just behind and stopped to see how he was doing. He didn't hit his head, his eyes were clear and he was speaking well... all very good. I checked his chest shoulder/clavical and his arm for any broken bones. I thought he may have fractured his elbow. The gash on his arm was deep but not life threatening. I left to foolishly try and catch the B group as he made hiw way back to the start. In retrospect I should have ridden back with him (as much for me as him as I was cooked in the race).
Hope you heal upi fast Harely.
Tom
I feel guilty as well Dan. I suppose we all could have yelled out something to neutralize behind the rec riders. And the gravel was a lot worse than I remembered from the first lap. Good analysis and thanks for getting the word out.
And ouch - take care of those wounds Harley.
Man, that's rough, Harley. Hope you are up and at it soon!
I was sucking wheel at the back of the pack and saw the whole thing happen.
Look, I don't want to point fingers or be confrontational, but I was yelling from the back to slow down as we were approaching. It was very clear that we would arrive at that intersection at the exact same time as those two ladies. Beyond the fact the gravel there made for safety concerns, the riders that went in front of those ladies cut them totally off. She had to hit her brakes hard and unclip. It was a jerk move to do that to them.
Ride safely and ride with respect. It gives Roadies a bad name to do crap like that.
Harley, I hope you heal up quickly so you can race up to cat 1/2 soon. Take good care. M
Harley, bummer man! Hopefully the meds and a bit of rest get you back on the bike again soon.
Flesh wound.
See you Saturday 8am.
;) jk
Take care dude, you'll be crushing it quickly.
R
Not the best way to spend a Wednesday evening...
Heal up fast Harley, hope to see you out on the roads again soon.
Harley - You are the toughest guy ever! All that and you were still smiling.
I guess I'm going to have to finally stop milking my little patch of roadrash for sympathy - your roadrash totally beats mine. Ouch!
Get better
Hope you're on the bike quickly, Harlee. You've been riding really well
Mike
Harley, you looked in pretty rough shape with your big pink leg bandage. Have a restful weekend; I'm sure you'll be back at it soon.
Can I get a decal and some flashing lights for my van. My kids would love a siren.
Debby has already asked me about the expected carnage tonight, if the weather holds for TnT.
I love my wife, but sometimes, she says mean things to me!!
Mike, I remember an old Trailer Park Boys episode that went a little something like this:
Ricky: With all due respect Lahey, you're a f$%* idiot.
Julien: Ricky, just because you said 'With all due respect' doesn't mean it is OK to say it.
So, Mike, you can't just say 'I don't want to point fingers or be confrontational' and then point fingers and be confrontational and think it is OK. Unfortunately with the internet people tend to have more license to point fingers and be confrontational for some reason.
Anyway, here is an individual that is doing more for Alberta cycling than most cycling clubs combined (for real, no joke) who in the heat of the moment made an incorrect error in judgement... and then has the guts to let everyone LEARN FROM HIS MISTAKE. Try that sometime, it isn't easy.
Do you really want to call a stand up guy like that a jerk?
We have an open forum here, which is different than most clubs because we are interested in progressing Alberta cycling. Dan already acknowledged his error, to comment like that is unfortunate.
Also, I am sure Harley would be the first to acknowledge he didn't need to hit the corner that hard in tight quarters in a weeknight event. We are learning lessons here, let's not be negative.. let's progress.
Trev
I too feel partly responsible for what happened last night as I happened to be the one setting tempo on the front at the time of the crash. LESSON: in situations of uncertainty, play it safe. My intuition as we came up on the triathletes was to slow down, neutralize and let the them go through the intersection before we turned. We were all together anyway so it did not matter one iota if we'd slowed. With the benefit of hindsight that would have been the right thing to do. Again, when there is any sort of indecision on what to do, always err on the side of safety.
Harley, heel up fast. I know you'll be back on the bike and crushing the field in no time.
Matt
Did you at least manage to get the triathletes' numbers?
Hey Harley,
Get well soon.
Cheers,
Kyle
Trev, I'm not calling anybody, especially Harley, a jerk. And I'm certainly not saying anything negative about him and what he's done for the ST club or cycling in our community. But, I stand by the comment that what we did, as a group, was a jerk move. It wasn't Dan's error, or anybody else's...it was all of us. I saw it with own eyes, and you can see other people saying that they wish we should have neutralized there. We should have, we didn't, and we as a group f-d that up. Good people make bad decisions. This was one of them. I make them all the time...probably like at 8am when I posted that comment.
I'm pretty sure that was Bubbles, not Julian.
Harley, I'm so sorry to hear about your accident but very glad you are (mostly) okay. Heal quickly or I'll have to find someone else to pull me back up to the pack on no-drop-rides!
Lel
Hey guys. I'm pretty torn up about this and I've been stressed since I heard so thanks for the full update. I didn't get around to see him as I was covering another problem and I heard that Mark was on scene. I thought the stop sign corner was going to be the hard place and I did strongly caution the riders to neutralize there and over the bridge but didn't think at all about a situation like that. I'm really sorry about the whole thing. Harley is one of the core guys and has always been great to have around the series. There is a lesson in this and I'll be sure to work to get the message out. I don't think it was anybody's fault and nobody wanted this to happen. It's one of those situations that comes up occassionally and we should file it into the experience file. That's what the WNS is for. Thanks to Thomas, Dan, Mark, and everbody else that helped out.
If anybody has any suggestions on what we could do to stop this from happening again, even if it involves harsh crticism of us, let me know and I'd be happy to chat. I really hope you're doing better Harley and look forward to seeing you really soon.
Jamie
Get well soon Harley!
In the meantime, enjoy the awesome drugs they gave you from the hospital.
Crashing sucks. I tried to wear arm and leg protection in last year's Tour de Bowness criterium (I have no skin left to rub off in those places) but apparently it isn't UCI legal.
One thing that can be done is we can phone/email/nag the county and ask them to do a better job sweeping the highways, especially the corners. It's a big liability to them and represents a real cost when you need to use a local hospital.
Heal up Harley! You're tougher than nails and smiling through it all. In a word, stellar character.
I just wanted to say that I'm glad to see us all talking about how we can improve openly and honestly.
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