Rocky Mountain Omnium - Criterium

This weekend I've been in Glenwood Springs, CO participating in the Rocky Mountain Omnium. My team has had a good group of three racing. It's been a lot of fun. Yesterday was the time trail and the team was in 1st, 3rd and 7th overall. I was in 7th, so today at the criterium my plan was to attempt and keep our lead racers in a good position. I spent a lot of time on the front going as hard as I could. My plan was simple, make it a hard race. Our guys had proved they were fast so I just needed to reduce the field. Things were going well until the last couple of laps. My friend David who was sitting in 3rd place had been riding on the back of the field for most of the race attacked. He got a good lead and I quickly got to the front and tried to block. A couple of racers were yelling at me but hey "come on around, if you can." Adventually they caught Dave and I immediately counter attacked. I was on the front going into a fast corner when there was a crash a few racers behind me. I looked back but I couldn't see who it was. I sat up because I knew I had two teammates back there and if they did crash I wanted to give them a chance to get back on.

The next lap around I saw David laid out on the road not looking good at all. They kept us racing but basically neutralized that corner. We all took it really slow. The ambulance and race EMTs came out and eventually helped him off the road. The race kicked back into action with about 3 or 4 laps remaining. I went to the front and ramped it up. I really didn't feel like racing and just wanted it over. I also needed to help my last teammate Tom. The last laps counted down quickly and I let the race go to sprint it out while I soft pedaled around through the finish and over to the crash corner. David was getting put on a backboard. It sounded like when the crash happen he was hit low and basically flipped over and landed on his head and shoulder. His helmet was blown out and he didn't remember the race. His collar bone was pretty obviously broken and he has skinned up.

We gathered our things from the race and went to the hospital. He was looking a lot better there. He'll be ok. Likely need surgery on the shoulder and a couple of painful nights with the road rash. Makes me wonder why I do some of these races. I have another hard road race tomorrow but my head really isn't in it. I'm just sad it happened. He's worked really hard to get in shape this year and it was clearly paying off. Keep him in your thoughts.