Recently my friend Daryl built himself a Superfly equipped with SRAM XX drivetrain and a full complement of Bontrager carbon parts. He rode it a few times and then i asked him to race a duo with me at the 6 Hour of Power. Now this is nothing new to him seeing as we used to race this event a few years back when he was still mountain biking. You need to understand that he and I have traveled a lot together to races and have some pretty good stories to go with the travels. This weekend would be no different.
We rolled into Holiday Valley where the race is held and got prepared to pre-ride the course around 5 p.m. Off we went up the mountain. Daryl has just upgraded to 29" wheels with this bike and he commented a few times over the past week that its almost like cheating because it rolls over stuff so well. (something i'm very aware)
Single track was dry and fast and the two of us kept a conversational pace as we pedaled through the trees. Now we knew we had no chance of winning the event but clearly we were going to be the team to have the most fun. Somewhere less than 5 miles into the 8.5 mile course Daryl takes a log jump a little to fast and just lets his rear tire bounce off the downed tree. This sends his bike up and over his head and I turn around just in time to see him hit the "floor" face first. I immediately can see he's knocked out cold as he & his bike slides down the bank on the left of the trail. I start yelling at him as he's sliding and run over just as he comes to a stop against a tree. As i'm pulling the bike off of him he regains consciousness and asks "what are we doing?"
A quick look at him tells me he's really out of it but besides his eye he's ok everywhere else. Nothing looks broke and hes sitting beside the tree. I help him up to the trail and get him to rinse the dirt out of his face with his water bottle while I continue to ask questions and look everything else over better. This only takes a couple seconds for me to realize his head is like a snow globe at the moment. Everything was there but he couldn't put anything into the right order. I then decide we need to get back to the resort and get him to a hospital. We start walking and he continues to ask questions which I answer in detail. Next thing I look back and he's riding, so we decide to ride back while he is still asking questions. I knew it was a hard hit since he was knocked out and because he asked stuff like "who's bike am I riding?" and he repeated several questions over and over.
The closer we got to the resort the better his memory became. As i would start to answer his questions he would finish the answers himself. Seemed to me that his brain was scrambling to put all the facts back in place and I was simply helping to sort it out. Arriving at the car he even remembered the combination to the keyless entry....a good sign.
Off to the Hospital which had no shortage of humor during the visit. In fact the Nurse cleaning his cuts asked for Dr Kumar and Daryl asked if "Harold" was coming with him. She did not find this funny but Daryl & I laughed. Finally at 1 a.m. we were released and he was given the ok to drive ride race or do anything else he wanted. Nothing broken just a badly wreaked face and a mild concussion.
Wow what a story! I'm laughing at this as I type it. So we show up in the morning and Daryl is up for racing. But no one there can believe it. Never the less we set up and and raced all day having a blast and surprising everyone there. Heck he cranked out very respectable lap times and even did 4. I think his biggest problem was vision due to one eye being limited by the swelling.
No we didn't win annd we didn't even place top 3. But we did beat several other teams and we did have a load of FUN! What a good time for sure and an awesome story. On the drive home Daryl made the comment "I doubt we'll forgot this event will we?"
stork
REMINDER- always wear a HELMET
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