When I was in high school, Remington Steele was on television.  That was back when I had a lot of dark black hair and if I angled my eye brow just so, I was told by the girls that I looked a lot like Pierce Brosnan.  Hey, I didn’t believe them, but I wasn’t going to argue!  It never hurt when it came to having a date.  I even picked up the nickname “Baby Rem.”

Well, it is now 2009 and I don’t have much of that dark black hair left.  What hasn’t turned gray has let loose!  Haven’t had anyone recently mistaken me for James Bond!  However, I’m afraid I may be picking up a new nickname – Jonathan “The Crash” Pait.  I’d prefer to stick with Low Cadence.

True, I seem to have had more than my share of crashes this year.  Actually, it all started nearly two years ago when I went down in my first ever and last of the 2007 year Cat. 5 race.  Amazingly, my first full season as a Cat. 5 racer never found me on the ground – even though it was a pretty successful 2008 year with me ending up the top ranked road racer in the SC Cat. 5 34+ field.

It was the subsequent move up to Cat. 4 and the 2009 cycling season that has had me going through a rough spat of luck.  I’ve had quite a few crashes this year and I have a fear that people are going to associate it with my riding within the Upstate peloton.  That is what I want to clarify… I have only wrecked twice in a race – that first wreck two years ago and my most recent wreck.  The later was in no way due to my riding.

Probably the fact that I write about my crashes here on LowCadence.com has something to do with people being more aware of my accidents.  I was talking with a friend today and he was telling me of a conversation he had with some other riders, “It isn’t that Pait is a squirrely rider.  Bad things just keep happening to him!”  Of course, my fear was that he was having to come to my defense with someone who was making the point that being a rider with rodent tendencies might be why I had these accidents.

For the record.  My first wreck of the year was in February.  I was riding alone down Paris Mountain’s Altamont Road.  I’ll remember that one because it was the first broken bone of my life.

My second wreck of the year wasn’t in a race, but out at Donaldson Center.  Again, this one had nothing to do with bike handling skill in the pack.  This was a case of being pretty much alone once again and not being aware of a slower rider ahead.  Sure, it was stupid, but it wasn’t because I was “squirrely.”

The third wreck of the year happened in the first of August and actually did take place in a group.  However, the witnesses of this event will point out to you that it was due to the inexperience of another rider that I took the dive.  I wasn’t the cause, I just wasn’t able to avoid it.

Of course, that brings us to the most recent wreck of the year.  As you can see, it was my first wreck in a road race.  The odd thing is that I always figured I would end up wrecking in some corner of a criterium.  However, I made it through the year (so far) without one – though I have narrowly avoided a couple (see here and here for a couple of examples).

Here’s hoping that will be it for the year.  Certainly, I can’t say for sure I won’t go down.  However, I think the evidence shows that I’m not going to take you down.  The only warning I’ll give you is you might not want to be near me because you may be collateral damage!

I also have to say “Thank you” to my mom and dad.  They must have given me some pretty hearty genes!  I’ve gone down with some pretty violent crashes this year and have been able to get back up and continue riding.  Seriously, looking back, I am very thankful for the protection I’ve been provided.  My body has taken some hits, but I’m bouncing back and going on.

When I returned to the Greenville crit the year after my first wreck, I won.  Maybe this year is just preparing me for 2010.  I like the nickname “Winner” best of all.

Oh, yeah, and things could be worse…

Have a nice ride!

 

Tags: Crash

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.