March 25::: Wes Crash Update + Rambling Rants

Posted Mar 24, 2005
2,891

Sorry I'm late, but it is only MARCH!

What's new?

Have you Cat5's finished your six hours in the saddle today out of your thirty-five hour week? Relaxing with an Endurox smoothie and reading your favorite site? Great to see! Keep it up! You'd better be flying at Altoona/WWP in two weeks!

Kent Park was a success - the first big roadie event of the season saw a great race last weekend. Everyone is really buzzing for the season to get started... now to get Mother Nature online with great weather, too!

Pardon me, but I'm going to play 'Big Brother' as I saw an unnamed junior riding a busy road yesterday without a helmet on... stick a lid on it, JUNIOR!

Godfather Marco

####

Lazy Neo-Pro Crashes at the Party::: Wes Hartman was positioned for his best finish as a PRO to date and had an unfavorable finish... read on and hope for a quick and full recovery! (For a counterpoint, see JohnnyL's diary::: )

Son of a...

No bueno.

Well I got to ride in an ambulance yesterday, I can't say I remember it, but I think the hospital will when they send me a bill.

Last lap, 100 meters to go, 6th wheel, then I'm in the hospital asking Tom Schuler why I'm here. Odd feeling. Damn concussions, well maybe its good that I don't remember crashes like that.

Now from about 10 seconds before impact to me seeing Tom Schuler in the hospital I don't remember but a beeb or two from that hour, but this is what I have been told and what I remember.

Apparently I was in the gutter as I came around the last corner and when I tried to jump back onto the main road I locked handlebars with Jackson Stewart of Ofoto/Sierra Nevada and as we detangled ourselves I was forced back into the gutter and into the ever-so-friendly metal baracade. The crash was no-ones fault really, mine if anyones, I'm just glad that no one else got real messed up.

I hear that the crash looked great, bike and body flailing, just hope I didn't scare any kids away from racing. I got a nice crowd afterwards, got the ambulance on the course, the backboard, neckbrace, the whole deal.

I am most devastated at the fact that I would have been top 5 if I wouldn't have gone down. I remember crying when Frank told me, it hurt more than the crash.

The cat scan came back negative, the x-rays on the other hand did not. I ended up breaking my collarbone way out where it connects with your arm and shoulderblade. The x-ray looks like the bone just seperated (clean break) from that joint.

I am headed back home to Council Bluffs tomorrow morning. It will be very nice to be back in the comfort of my family. I'm in good spirits, already looking forward to racing again, hopefullly that will not change too much in the next month. My goal will be to race at the Altoona/Waterworks race weekend in a month. I guess that all depends on what the ole doc says but right now that is what I've got my eyes on.

I hope I will be able to see most of you soon, I am hopefully headed to Ames this weekend for a weding so I'm sure if I am I will be in touch.

-Wes

###

Kent Park Wrap::: I couldn't believe the great turnout, stellar weather and all of the hard men (and women) ready to ride each other off their wheel on Sunday. Conn, Bridget and Mark put on a great race for all involved, and to my knowledge, no one lost any skin. Congratulations to the winner, Team EMU/All9yards.com rider Lee Venteicher.

The Polar Files:::After getting the power unit refurb'd, I reinstalled it before a 50-mile ride to Newton. I'll tell you, I couldn't figure out how to get it to work, especially the damn cadence sensor. I had it shimmed to the point of slapping the monitor, but still didn't work. Half-way to Newton, I realized the shim was falling out, so I removed it and found the cadence to work perfectly fine! WTF?!?!?

It still wasn't working correctly, telling me that I was putting out 1200 watts climbing a hill, so I re-measured the chain and the numbers were pretty consistent.

After racing the Polar Power at Kent Park, I'm sold. I didn't follow the numbers during the race, because I'm not going to tell my legs to put out an extra 50-100 watts on command. The magic was downloading the data afterwards, seeing I put out 300 watts average on the first lap, then after being dropped by the leaders, I averaged 250 for the rest of the race.

What does that mean? It meant that my average power is where I expected it to be at this point of the season. Less than full strength. I know I can put out 600-700+ watt repeat sprints at this time of the year with little recovery. I knew my TT/endurance strength isn't there since I haven't worked on it yet. Now I know what I need to improve in the coming weeks - all points to remember and work on through the coming weeks of training building to Altoona/WWP and Iowa City weekend.

Dear Diary...Westy said it best - what ever happened to the good old days of where you'd write your inner-most thoughts and hide your 'top-ten I hate you list' away from everyone. Looks like the little pink journal has gone online for the following racerdudes...

Dear Diary...CxKing:::I'll give Jake props... he's a stud on the cx bike and supports the Iowa cx scene... read his innermost thoughts at http://www.cxking.blogspot.com

Dear Diary...Kona Enduro::: Sean's gone pro at http://www.konaenduro.blogspot.com

Dear Diary...Megan Elliott::: Megan is So-Pro at http://www.elliottmegan.blogspot.com

Dear Diary...Lou::: Lou makes me giggle at http://www.goxconsulting.com

Support Local Races... Don't Support Local Races::: Thanks for providing the entertainment for O-Dawg, Harry-Maharry and I the past few days... it was seriously worth that bag of Doritos I ate while reading all of the spew on bikeiowa.org. Makes me glad that I stick above it all at bikeiowa.com ;)