Utah MS-150 Weekend

Thank you to everyone who donated to JuniorSprinter (I don't know if he is ever going to blog again) and I for our second Annual MS-150 ride. Together we raised $1,229 for MS research as support programs.

The ride is held every year in Cache Valley (Logan) Utah. JS and I rode the 100 mile century route on the first day again this year. It is a fantastic, mostly flat, route that winds its way north into Idaho for a while before returning to the fair park in Logan. When we did it last year, the extra loop you rode to complete the century had only one stop on it. This year they moved the rest stop a little, and added two water stops which were a nice touch. We both finished much stronger than we did last year.

Our plan was to ride the long route on Sunday, which would have given us a total of 175 miles over the two days. We were both riding very strong and were helping to lead a solidly moving pace line of about 12 people. As we entered Hyrum, Utah near the 50 mile mark, we made a left, a right and then saw a support vehicle with a ride volunteer pointing that we needed to make another quick left. As the group spread out and started to slow down, JS got stuck in the middle a little bit, hit some road damage funny and severely bent his front wheel.

Elementary physics indicates that when you are going 18 mph, and the front of the bike stops, the rest of the bike keeps going. JS was thrown over the front of the bike and onto the road. We then got to meet several medics and the staff at Logan Regional Medical center. The medical and ride staffs both did a gread job taking care of him. He tucked and rolled as well as you could, but he still suffered a partial separation of his left shoulder. He has sizable road-rash patches on his shoulder blade, upper and lower right arm, left hip, and a large bruise and road rash on his right knee.

He will be hurting for a while. He will also be off the bike for a week or so, which is good because it will take that long for me to fix the wheel or find him a new one, install a new handlebar (he bent the old on in the crash as well) and bar tape, and make the other fixes to get the bike ridable again.

I later heard that same section of road, less than 400 meters long, ended up being the location of two other serious crashes. But I can't fault the MS-150 staff. They did a great job the whole weekend, and even if that area could have been signed better, there is no way to know if that would have prevented the crashes, and you can't fault them for road damage. After JS crashed we had a staffer with us the whole time until we left the hospital. They were really great.