The Close to Another Season
Yesterday was the last Driveway race of the season. As removed as I was this year, it was still sad knowing it would be the list time I’d see some of these folks for a few months. It also meant I had to fess up that I had not really done my part to help out this year. It’s been easy to say I’ve been too tied up with work but I also know alot of it was feeling so removed after my accident. It also seemed like many of the old regulars were not longer coming out; especially from my own team. I miss feeling a part of this sub-culture that is so strong and yet so natural and at ease on their bikes.Still, even as the driveway shuts down this year, I am excited to come back to it next year.
The weather brought people out in droves with highs in the lower 80’s. After a year of record highs it was a racing opportunity many were not willing to pass up. Even most of the Trek Junior pro team came out. It doesn’t take much of an excuse for me to bring bubbly to an event and another successful year seemed as good a reason as any. So as the night wound down, Holly, Suzi, and I sipped on some fabulous bubbly rose and mused about another great year.
The view from registration; after the huge line died down
As I was registering people, I saw a racer I hadn’t seen in a while. He started racing last year and quickly moved up to a Cat3. He doesn’t race with a team and isn’t your “typical” racer. At the beginning of the year, I got on him a few times because his helmet didn’t fit right. It was an older helmet and the tightener on the back had broken. For some reason he also had the straps adjusted really low. The end result was that his helmet moved around freely and wasn’t doing him any good. I helped him adjust it a few times. While he might have found it annoying, I knew it could make a difference. When I saw him yesterday, he was wearing a new helmet that fit! I immediately told him I liked his helmet. Turns out we hadn’t seen him for a while because he had crashed and landed on his head. He had only started adjusting his helmet because we got on him so badly. His helmet cracked in the crash and if he hadn’t been wearing it correctly, he could have been seriously injured. He actually told us we might have saved his life. It really makes you think.