I entered into the good Friday road race today. I wanted to test my bike fitness. The race went off great I was siting in perfect position I was sitting 11Th in a pack of 200 so I was well in the front. Everyone was riding well until... about 15ish km into the race the person 2 people over from me hit the guy beside me and then the guy beside crashed into me and with 180ish riders behind it wasnt going to go well. I went flying over the Handel bars in to the left lane we were going about 42km when it happened. the first thing i did was look behind me and all i saw was a wall of rides trying to get out of the way of the crash. The first thing i did was get up and sprint to the side of the road but since guys were on the grass to get out of the way I got hit right in the face buy another rider. So in all 10 or so riders went down 3 of use that were riding side by side got the worst of it (the guy who caused the crash was fine and so was his bike...all I say LEARN TO RIDE IN A PACK)So well I was at the side of the road I made sure I was ok witch for the most part i was the road we fell on was very smooth so road rash really wasn't that bad. We did how ever hit the road really hard and I hit my head pretty good.
Now I went onto the road to get my bike and water bottles and move it to the side of the road. I then started to realize how hard we really hit the road because my shifter was snapped in half, my pedal was broken clean off, my bar tape was really riped up and the most pain full my zipp 404 is really smashed up. The other 2 guys with me had pretty much the same damages lots of broken carbon wheels.
I have been pretty lucky over the years of staying out of crashes so I guess the cycling gods said it was my time. How ever I am a little pissed with the guy who caused the crash because we were on a flat and straight road and from what i hear from the other guy we just panic and smashed into him. Also Ontario cycling should have known that 200 people in cycling pack is not going to work they had sr4 men and master 3 man go together when there should have been 2 different races! So question to Ontario cycling you going to help pay for all the stuff that is broken? In total there was 3 big crashes and some people that crashed them self's out. One guy had to go to hospital because he was knocked out cold. I understand crashes happen but most people in the race are not tour de France riders and they are not used to having 200 people in a pack. i think if they just split the races I don't think we would have had that many crashes.
