West River Drive TT and my first crash

This morning I went into center city to ride the West River Drive TT....I have never done a bike time trial before and I thought it would be good to see how they work.  We left Lansdale about 5:30 so we could get into the city and get warmed up before the event.  I thought I would be fine in bike shorts and a shirt....but it was COLD.

I had a long sleeve with my that I wore thankfully, but I was completely underdressed.  It was about 50 out but the sun was not out and it was chilly.  We warmed up...riding the course out and back.  It is flat and closed to traffic.  We were told that the runners and geese would not move for us.

There were about 40 people and they sent us off every 30 secs.  Apparently this series has been going on for over 10 years.  My HR monitor was  reading so I was playing with that while warming up...it would pick up then go out, then read 60 then 210....so annoying.

Finally it was go time...and thanks to the advice of Julia and Jen, I just rode hard.  Since it was my first one, I had no bench mark.  There were slight elevations but nothing crazy.....I wanted to catch the girl in front of me...which I did...and then I just rode...and then I thought I might puke....but alas the finish came and we were done.   I have a goal to beat this summer and it is a great little series.

After that, we rode the Philly Olympic course loop a couple of times.  I do not have great bike handling skills and there were tons of little narrow pathways we had to get on and road closures that we had to navigate.  The boys were bunny hopping the crap in the rode and I was just trying not to crash.

This is boathouse row, which we rode a couple of times...very pretty!

Oh and crash I did, we headed back to West River Drive to get in some more miles and head out the the hills of Manayunk.  There was a Hunger Walk in progress, so we were riding slowly through the masses to get through and pass their turnaround.

This guy was not pleased that the bikers were out on the pedestrian/ bike road and he was getting pissed at the riders apparently.  So when I went to pass him...he clotheslined me...and down I went.  Not fast, but hard.  Totally shaken and not wanting to start a fight in downtown Philly, I got on my bike and rode away.

Assessed the damage after the turnaround and I have some pretty big gashes in my knees and elbows...and my right thigh has a monster bruise..Likely that I will live though.  So first crashed done and survived!