Tour of Austin Day One

I was really excited about the Tour of Austin. It is a three day stage race around Austin that tons of people go to.

It was one of the most dicey races I have ever been in. Right before we started, it started to rain. It was just a slight drizzle, just enough to wet the road down. Even though it was barely raining everyone was really freaked and riding really sketchy. Of course, just about 5 minutes into the race, there was a crash. I was riding well when I heard "CRASH!" and people started falling over in front of me. I was able to avoid the crash to the left but almost fell when I hit my right hand on the butt in front of me.

The next 30 miles were pretty uneventful. It stopped raining on the back of the course, but people were still very shaken up by the crash. I was jittery. I hadn't raced in months and then there was a crash in the first five minutes that shattered my nerves. No one was attacking off the front. This turned out to be very boring. A lot of people in the peloton were joking about how boring the race was. I was happy to just sit in!

Five minutes from the finish, there was another crash! But I was in this one. I was right behind the guy that crashed, and there was no way to get out of the way. I had the surreal feeling that you get right before you go down when you tell yourself, "okay im going to crash, this might hurt a bit...." Luckily, I was fine and ended up with just a few scratches and bruises. The guy that ended up on the pavement next to me was sitting there and yelling. His middle finger was bent 90 degrees in the wrong direction. As I sat and watched him, he bent his finger back in place. I was appalled. I couldn't believe that this dude had just bent his finger back in place! I'm pretty sure I would have laid down in the road and cried until the med crew came and picked me up. We ended up finishing the race together. I got 25th out of 60 or so. I race again on Monday, and I hope to do well!