WP #5 and the latest crash

Lots of good things coming out of the last race, we'll get to those first. Marni kicked major ass and got 3rd place again on a really hard course. From the hill climb to now she's made quite a transformation. King of the Rockies is coming up next to cap her season and it appears a spot on the series podium as well.The Clyde podium was a thing of destiny. I'd been waiting all season for this and almost got it last race. This time Bill stepped up to the top of the box as I predicted and Brady and Jason rounded out the group. Way to go all of you!
Everyone else rode really great races as well. Erik and Mike battled it out, Dan hung tough despite missing his start and John kicked ass as well. I made the finish, that's about all I can say. Take a close look at this picture courtesy of Ray. Here's the back story. Looking to move up from 3rd place I was going to lay it on the line for this race. The pace off the bat was easier than normal in the group but we still laid waste to 2/3 of the field. Onto the first real climb the group split and I set my own pace, biding my time and moving up slowly. Onto upper elk I was in 5th and waiting for the downhill. My preride paid dividends and I rocked down, picking up time on the 4 ahead of me. I got some Perpetuem down on the road to Zoom and set my sights on 4th next. Onto Zoom I attacked and quickly caught 4th moving by uncontested. I kept the pressure on, hitting a max speed of 34.5 mph on my GPS somewhere along the way. Not long before the road, my pace was on the edge...in fact it was over. A corner came, I slid more than I desired and in seconds I was tumbling on the ground. I hit so hard that I knew I was in trouble and I didn't even try to get right back on the bike. I waved the other racers on since I was not in serious trouble and collected my belongings, bottle, GPS, and bike and moved off the trail. The initial damage wasn't good. Broke the GPS mount, messed up my brake lever, gloves and had some nasty looking gouges down my leg. All body parts seemed to work though so I coasted down to the road. I hurt a lot, especially my right leg and my first thought was to drop. The race director didn't have a medic right here though and it wasn't past Marni's start time yet so I decided to continue. The spectators cheered me on so I picked it back up and thought about salvaging the race. There was still a lot of climbing to go so I could at least claw back a few places. I hit elk meadow slowing picking up the tempo, finally wheeling over the water crossings before D2. I pulled up on the bars to charge up D2 and my race was over. My left handlebar came off in my hand from the shifter outward. I cussed and then laughed. I joked to the riders around me that it was time for my pro move, throwing the bike into the woods. The rest of the race became a comical parade. I climbed well cheering on my friends and teammates as they passed and even paced a few of them for a bit. But the downhills were worthless. With half a bar and no front brake I couldn't control my speed. I crashed again in front of women's winner Heather but she was nice enough to make sure I was okay and I was. I crashed again into a tree on Long trail when the rear brake wasn't enough to slow me down a steep section. But I limped it in 2:50 after I started and waited to cheer Marni across the line. When she saw me she asked "how did it go?" All I said was "let's get to the finish."
Everyone had fun checking out my bike and injuries before I headed off to Fraiser to grab the car. I coasted most of the way and just when I was ready to leave Marni called me to say she got 3rd! I hurried back but I wasn't fast enough and missed her award. I'm still so proud of her though!The scrapes came from my stem bolts. I also have an impression from something else on my right knee. Left knee is bruised and scraped and right elbow is cut. The worst is my right calf and ankle. Swollen and bruised but it doesn't appear anything is broken so that's very good.
The bruise doesn't show up on camera so well but it definitely doesn't feel good.
Onto the bike damage. Yea that's busted good.
Light or not, hitting the ground at 30mph is not good for your bars.
Or your brake lever. This needs to be replaced as well.

Yea that's how I feel about that.
Oh well, that's racing. Hopefully I'll heal up soon. No one likes to go down but I really do enjoy attacking in these short races since it's something I never do on the endurance ones.