A View from the Back. Mel Diaz (Posted by Teenie)

Thanks to the slow pace after the opening sprint, (SPRINT!?) I felt pretty good…yet once over the railroad tracks I realized something was wrong with the bike, more noise and vibrations than normal, so I slowed to pull off…the pack had cleared…there was the side road before the road smoothes…then a slow motion fall…going down, what happened!!! Tire rolled, bam! Hand, forearm, shoulder, watch my glasses go bouncing in front of me…get up...everything moves, my hand has a lot of blood, forearm road rash. Get on the bike and ride it in, pass another of our group with a flat, Keith changes the flat for me Christina cleans me up a bit and I get on the bike ride back down the course to turn before the tracks. 28 MPH to get back on, took forever…tag back on still going…another acceleration…bye bye, fun while it lasted. Pass a masters rider from Augusta who was popped off…here comes an organized group of young racers…big guys for Juniors but they were riding hard and fast so I jump on, go up golf course hill…is this really only the second time? Again go up it over 20mph at the top around the bend 100 yards ahead are 45+ Masters, the group accelerates to catch and I watch them ride away…again this is getting old. Recover…the masters rider from Augusta catches me and we ride in together into the wind, cross the stream at the bottom, snap, my seat is now pointing up and something falls off…the connector broke…stand up and ride in. Enough for one day. By evening wrist has a minor sprain, hip has minor rash and what feels like a point in shoulder has a little more than a Cat 1 AC separation, I have had a 3 and 1 so am fairly certain I will heel. Other than that, it was a fun weekend!