The not-so-safe safety pin

So last weekend Pete and I made the annual trek to Downer's Grove, IL (suburb of Chicago) for the Elite and Pro National Championships criterium bike races. This is Pete's favorite race of the year, and the one that he wants to win more than any other race. He's been doing this race since he was a junior racer (in his teens)...and now he's considered a "master" (30+), so he's been racing a long time. This year Pete was really excited about the race because he was feeling fit and he also had 7 other strong teammates racing and helping him out. So he was confident that they would be contenders for the big win. The winner of this race gets a special stars-and-stripes jersey that they can wear for the next year (so that everyone knows they are a national champion in that event).

The big Elite championship race is on Sunday, but Saturday there are a bunch of "warm-up races" on the same course. So Saturday Pete and 3 of his "older" teammates did the Master's 30+ race. It was a super fun race to watch, as Pete was riding well and winning primes (intermediate sprints for cash), and his teammates were doing awesome, and he ending up winning the race. It was so exciting, and the look on his face crossing the line says it all...it was his first win ever at Downer's Grove. It was extra cool because one of IL's most famous racers and former U.S. Postal Service rider, Robbie Ventura and some of his teammates were in the race wearing cameras, and filming the whole time. Pete's known Robbie for a long time (from "racing back in the day" in IL), and I always tease him that Robbie is his hero. Robbie retired from professional cycling last year, and is now a coach and still does some local racing, and apparently he's making an instructional video on crit racing. So Pete's win will be forever memorialized on Robbie's video, and Robbie also interviewed him after the race. That was nice bonus. (the other bonus was that Pete and his teammates won about $350 during the race).

So Sunday rolled around and Pete and his teammates were stoked for the big race. It was 80k long...which translates to 50 laps of the course which is one mile long, so 50 miles (which takes about an hour and 45 minutes to complete). I get so nervous watching this race, and since it's longer than most races, it just gets even more nerve-wracking as each lap passes. Pete got the first "call-up" --the race announcer calls-up some of the top riders for the crowd to see--so that was pretty cool. There were about 150-160 guys in the race...that's a huge field. So the race started, and Pete and his teammates were riding well and sticking to their game plan. I walked the entire course just to have something to do and to calm my nerves. With about 15 laps to go, Pete and his teammates started working their way to the front of the race. By about lap 10, his entire team was at the front controlling the race...it was beautiful, and Pete said it gave him goosebumps to look ahead of him and see all of his teammates riding at the front (and protecting him).

During these kind of races, there's something called a "free lap". If a racer has a mechanical problem (either due to a crash, or a flat tire, etc), they can go to a specified "wheel pit" and quickly get their bike fixed and jump back into the race on the next lap without a penalty. For this race, the "free laps" ended with 5 laps to go...the idea is that at the end of the race, they don't want to give anyone an advantage by letting them sit out and rest for a lap.

So with 5 laps to go, Pete and teammates are still at the front, and I'm getting very excited (and nervous) because it looks like they're going to have a very good chance to win this thing. But when the field rolled by on the next lap, suddenly Pete and his teammates weren't there. I'm confused, but I assume they were caught up in a crash (there were many crashed throughout the race that Pete and his teammates successfully avoided). I was so bummed. Then suddenly I see Pete and one his teammates round the corner trying to chase the field down--needless to say, it's not easy to chase down 150 guys moving at 35 mph. On the next lap (2 laps to go), Pete and a different teammate were still trying to chase...but then I saw Pete "sit up"...that's when I knew it was over. The race ended with only one of Pete's teammates finishing (in the top 10, which was sweet!). Here's what happened--with 4 laps to go (no more "free laps"), Pete went through a corner where there was a previous crash, and was unlucky enough to pick up a safety pin in his rear tire (presumably, the pin was from a crash victim...bib numbers are pinned on with a million safety pins). His teammate riding behind him saw the pin instantly, so he told Pete he had a problem. He tried rubbing his foot on his tire (while still racing) to get the pin out, but it didn't come out....so he then used his hand to get it out (at this point, he was more concerned about the pin being in his tire than in his hand). As soon as the pin came out, he could tell his tire was going flat. So he pulled over, and his teammate (Dale) went with him, and they were going to swap out tires. Then another teammate pulled up, and just told him to take his whole bike. So Pete hopped on, and tried to chase back on to the field...but had already lost too much time.

The only way I can describe the end of that race was heart-breaking. I felt so bad for Pete, but there really wasn't anything he could have done differently. It was just really bad luck.

So now the road racing season is over, and we're starting to prepare for the off-road ("cyclocross") season.

Thanks for reading!
Sarah

p.s. you can check out photos for the Downer's Grove races on my friend (and Velo Bella sponsor) Matt's website--he was there taking photos for Cyclingnews.com. Here's his website: www.moses-images.com