It was a fine day for the District RR in Fort Ord, Ca. Heavy fog at the beginning made for some wet roads and the need to dig out the arm and knee warmies, but this is de rigueur in the Monterey Bay area. If any of you bikies have made it out this far to ride at Fort Ord, it is mostly rolling-type terrain, with a few sharp climbs thrown in here and there. Pavement is a 5 on the 10-scale; a few potholes, cracking, but everywhere the roads are covered in heavy chip-seal. Not much for building up momentum on the climbs. After playing it smart, and holding my own with the gunners up the loop's most significant climb, I made the 12-15 dude cut on the last lap for the run-in to the finish. The course turned in to a headwind, so people were trying to tuck in w/ about 1 mile to go. Then, after one near crash in the group, it happened: 4-5 guys hit the deck at 1K to go. The accident developed right and continued left across the road-I tried to veer even more left, but I couldn't get out due to another rider on that shoulder. (He later said he missed the whole thing by bushwhacking on the left side of the road.) So, as a bike flipped through the air on my right, its owner, presumably, rolled on the ground in front of me. Somehow, my front wheel missed him (bunnyhop?), but then my back wheel tagged him. When it did, I did a pitchout (more BMX terms), and my back wheel severely taco-ed-but I stayed upright (YEA!). I took it off the bike and tried the old MTB beat-it-on-the-ground-until-it-will-pass-through-the-frame maneuver, but alas, it was way too gone. I rode the last kilometer in the meat truck with some of the other carnage. Could have been worse, but after making ir the whole way and stacking it in the last K, it was a bit of a bummer. As Liggett says, that is the way the cards fall. "Til next time-next up is University RR and then Winters RR.
