So after returning from my stint in France, I was still having lots of trouble walking properly and my bursa was still very inflamed. I found it in my best interest to pack the bike in for a few weeks and start over. Unfortunately, this limited any sort of racing here locally and any fitness for racing nationally.
After healing, I went through a bit of a motivational crisis and finally after deciding that I was going to make a push for the rest of the season it seems that my luck showed up again. I had a fork delaminate while riding, causing me to do the "Hincapie." This also sent my body flying through the air, rendering 12 stitches in the knee and 2 broken ribs. So check one week recovery!
The race itself went pretty well, especially for racing with 2 broken ribs on a bike I had never ridden prior to that night. Coming in 10th was a nice bonus too.
The next day, we raced a new course in the day that was somewhat technical. Also being a little windy it meant that the field was going to be in pieces. Approaching the midpoint in the race, as I came into the third corner, which was a little off camber and downhill, my front tire blew mid corner. Trying my best to stay upright, I put all the weight on the rear causing the rim to taco, sending me into the street gutter.
Almost laughing as I got into the grass, since this could not be happening again. Doing an assessment of the damage, I had my right side pretty much covered in road rash and my helmet split in half! As I got cleaned up by the EMT staff the pain in my shoulder started to grow and driving home I was almost in tears the whole way.
During the next few days it progressed and got worse. This prompted some attention and I found out that I did indeed fracture my collarbone. Most riders at this point would write their season off at this point. I thought the same thing and then during my time off for the next week, the gossip of this crash started to come back to me and really lit a fire up under me.
Personally hating when people tell me things cannot be done or negative things about me, I started planning my last horrah for the year, the Florida State Road Race Championship. Being so motivated I rode my trainer 7 days straight in my garage, until I was able to ride on the road again. I wanted to stay off anyone's radar for this race, training alone and skipping all the end of season races.
As I slowly started to gain fitness, I was pretty happy with the legs coming into the last race of 2010. Knowing that I would have two chances to become a "state champ," I would have to play my cards right either day to capitalize. Saturday was the championships based on age and Sunday was set to be per category.
Coming to the start line of these races is always interesting because you never know who is going to show up. As the race started, the normal stars of Florida were out and also a few outliers that showed up out of the blue. Danny Holt of TT1 being one of the major players. Getting underway, I had a feeling that this was going to be a race of patience. Coming into the last laps, I was very quick to follow any of my marked riders and with one to go Holt shot a ballistic attack up the feedzone climb. I went eye's crossed to follow but it was a little too late and my move also brought two guys I had watched all race.
As the move progressed, it seemed that we were going to come to a bunch gallop. I made sure to stay towards the front and as we came into the last two kilometers, a crash seemed almost immanent from the energy of the field. Sure enough with about 700m to go, a surge happened on the far right causing a multitude of riders to move in that direction, this caused a massive pile up! Being quite patient, I stayed right and was able to sneak through any sort of pending catastrophe.
Crossing the line in a mixed category race, you never know where you are. I came across 4th, but who was ahead of me? Where they in my category?
NO!
Goal Achieved!
Garrett White is now the 2010 State Road Race Champ!
Finally after what seemed to be a year of crashes and broken me, I came back and made up for all of it in one day! This will provide some great motivation for the winter and fuel my fire all season!
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