Subaru-MarathonMTB.com Racer Stu Spies loves a road race – in fact he just loves racing. Stu checks in with his thoughts on crashing. Surely part of his build towards the 2014 Transalp?
We don’t like to talk about it, sometimes we barely acknowledge its existence, but it is woven into the fabric of what we do, an inevitability that renders us mute and very superstitious!
You will, at some point, hit the deck.
The madness begins (Photo courtesy Roger Jackson ‘Olliepix’ rights reserved)
At a recent highly popular event in the centre of London my ticket got punched, mine, two of my team mates and roughly 5 other guys at various points in what has to be the shortest and most aggressively contested 40mins any crit racer will experience.
It shook me, firstly our sprinter Gav Ryan, had taken a slide into a barrier after losing his front wheel on an unsighted ripple of tarmac, he was on my wheel building for the closing laps, his injury needing stitches but thankfully nothing more. Half a lap later I was flying through the air trying to grab a crash barrier and save myself from that sickening thud that renders collarbones useless, creating season ending fractures of doom. I was fully committed to a line at the fastest point of the circuit with another team mate Dan Thut glued to my wheel when a chap in front lost his front wheel and went sliding at full pelt into the curb.
I’m aiming for the barrier, Dan is heading for the ground, riders take evasives (Photo courtesy Roger Jackson ‘Olliepix’ rights reserved)
I hit the brakes, him, the barrier and every part of me came to a sudden unwelcomed halt. I was supremely lucky, so lucky I couldn’t face Dan at first, he was screwed I knew it, he had zero warning, at 50kph on a street circuit its barriers or bust, he had hit the two of us and flown straight over ploughing shoulder first into the tarmac.
I limped over to check how he was, my heart still racing, flat on his back Dan was stuffed. Managing the frazzled first aider, his own pain, his still racing heart and the pulsing adrenaline his agonised face still a picture of relative calm and his ultimate demeanour heroic in a sea of fast paced chaos.
Carbon cracking, beat down begins, Nuun’s Craig Mclean narrowly avoiding a fall (Photo courtesy Roger Jackson ‘Olliepix’ rights reserved)
The race was allowed to carry on stupidly, inexperienced marshalls doing everything right just not in the right areas, barely avoiding further catastrophe by not stationing themselves where the charging pack would see them in time to react. A heartstopping moment ensued where the leaders barreled into the same corner missing Dans head by millimetres, it was a perfect storm of ‘awful’, thankfully no one came off and Dan was soon emphatically explaining the danger of the situation.
The crash ends the recovery begins. (Photo courtesy Roger Jackson ‘Olliepix’ rights reserved)
I generally accept the risks of racing but every so often a big spoonful of wake up gets shoved in your throat, this time I seriously questioned what we were doing.
With around a month to Transalp, my goal race, I was risking everything, all that training, all the prep for a 30min race in a discipline known for its close quarters format, was I being a total idiot? Do I quit and focus on the goal with a different preparation? I can’t say I have a definitive answer more a complex realisation, it is was it is!
The realisation came after I saddled up on my battered bike and headed off to Crystal Palace Crits a week later to face my demons and make a decision about racing.
Ironically I land up in a breakaway with the same chap that went down first, oh marvellous! He’s a great guy, and no one wants to be ‘The Guy Who Caused the Crash’ but there you have it, sometimes you just are that person. The circuit is fast and technical, it is known for punishing bad lines with more options of stacking than the previous weeks event. I found myself watching this guy’s every move, every body position, at each high speed corner I found myself charging to get ahead of him or run the escape path, tighter and more agressively whilst literally flattening my torso into the top tube in some comedic exageration of my normal position.
Thankfully we all came out unscathed, a regular early week race passed with little more than some good solid battles throughout the order. But that realisation arrived, crashes happen, unannounced, unplanned and certainly not welcome, they are there simply waiting, with no more malice than to prove physics has laws and those laws are inevitable, if you let them control you your days of racing enjoyment are numbered.
2013 had Matt Bridge race with Stu Spies at the Craft Bike Transalp
Has it settled me?
Sort of, it is still a risk every day Transalp gets nearer but I feel compelled to try set things right and not feel that disaster is lurking in every corner. But the stress is palpable now, ‘stay in one piece’ has become my mantra.
Other than stopping I can’t see any other option than remaining positive, remaining switched on and enjoying what I do. I would be offering that advice to any one who would listen, don’t take unneccesary risks but don’t cower in a corner expecting the worst, make your luck and ride smart. Will Hayter has been a massive inspiration in how to handle disasterous race crash outcomes, he’s proving a perfect sounding board to our injured mate answering all those collarbone and recovery versus training questions and embodies what he preaches by simply getting back on the bike and back in the game.
Will Hayter knows a thing or two about crash recovery. As does Mike Hogan.
So anyone suffering an injury, don’t think your mates have abandoned you, they’re probably terrified whatever bad luck befell you will somehow be in some way contagious, they’re probably simultaneously thanking their luck stars and trying to figure out all of the above, hang in there, stay positive and remain patient, heal well and then hit it hard!