Redlands Classic, Aftermath

Now that the smell of Kettle Corn on turn two of the crit has dissipated, my bars have been re taped and my finger grown back together, and I have watched my massive bruises jump through a kaleidoscope of colors, it's time to close the RBC book. Although I can't stop eating, despite eating a massive bowl of oatmeal, a burrito, plus a banana, and some Nature Valley bars prior to Sundays race. At 10am....

After my epic bike fail I was worried about 2 things: The potential of a fracture to my scapula and Brian stressing about me yarding it as he prepped for his duel with Sunset. So I hid from him in the feed zone and then the medic tent.

I think this is a good time to introduce a complicated tangent to this epic: Brian's racing too. Last year I played super supporter to Brian and his composite team. Here in 2011, he rides for CashCall Cycling out of Irvine and had some big goals for Redlands. In November he and I sat down and sketched out our season goals and step one was competing in and completing Redlands. This race would act as a stepping stone and benchmark for the forthcoming season. We spent hours together throughout the winter silently climbing to Idyllwild, Oak Glenn, in the rain, in the heat, building on our unbreakable bond. Now at Redlands, we would be on parallel missions, but without the ability to physically support each other. We have a good system in place and each of us is well taken care of by our teams/directors/friends. And we would both be there if we could, and both want the other to reach as many goals as possible, so we tell each other to go home. :)

Paul Abrahams, Brian's manager/director pulled me aside after SDSR crit and said: "Joy, your a bike racer now. No more chatty patty, go change, get your recovery drink and sit down." Oof, time to take care of myself! So each stage of Redlands, neither of us watched the other race! Most stages he raced after me, so I would find him and his team, throw them all high fives and be on my way to recovery. And waiting for the news of how things played out!

Now when I crashed, the COM cars were on the radio ASAP, and all of a sudden, old friend Larry Longo announces at the start of the Cat 3 men's crit "Local Joy Duerksen has crashed out on the Sunset Circuit!" Hahaha For The WIN!!! Talk about freaking out! I think Brian's response was "She's a tough cookie, she can handle herself" as he paced back and forth! But everything works out, he knew I was fine before the start and had the ride of his life to date, finishing RBC 48th overall. That's a big deal because last year, he was 102nd.

I finally got to watch him race on Sunday! The Breyer's and I headed up to Ridge road where the suffering would be exquisite! It was awesome to see Brian and the local boys and the CashCall boys dicing it up!

Since my body has sent all of it's white blood cells and rejuvenating goodness has gone to bruise control and muscle fixing, I'm sick. Like home from work sick not riding my bike sick, overdosing on orange juice/garlic and lemon juice/dayquil sick.

Here's to recovery and rest, so we can get on with this bike racing stuff!