This was the crash ride, hopefully the last one for a long while. I rode over to John's house from home, taking the usual route to Pomerado Rd except going up Azucar Way instead of Aguamiel Rd. Up Pomerado Rd to Poway Rd, then to John's the typical route. I remember feeling strong on the little climb up to his house. I met up with him and Dave, who has just started riding again. We headed over to Scripps-Poway Pkwy, where I kept it pretty modest in pace until about 0.25 mi into the climb up to the 67. I was feeling good and rode a nice steady pace up the climb, feeling that I could have come close to doing a personal best in time if I wanted to. We gathered at the top and headed toward Ramona on the 67. Dave was slow, getting his cycling legs back will take some time. A guy passed us on the climb up to the pass by Mt. Woodson, and I hopped on his wheel. He was moving pretty good, but I was hanging in there, including a strong push near the top where I led out and he basically kept pace, dropping back just a little bit. We connected again at the top, then headed down to the turn onto Archie Moore Rd. This road, going this way, doesn't really have any climbs in it. We got onto Highland Valley Rd, and I took the gradual climb at a modest pace, thinking I still had another 20 miles to ride. We started downhill, with John in the lead, and I was okay through the first downhill section. I noticed that my cyclometer wasn't accurately reading my speed, and I was ticked off and probably just a little distracted. So on the next downhill section, I carried too much speed into the last turn before it flattened out and lost it onto the right side of the road, going over the handlebars and driving my face and shoulders hard into the ground. The right side of my face got scraped up and was bleeding freely but just for a short while. It took a couple of minutes before my left shoulder started hurting, and the pain just kept getting worse, so I knew I was going to need a ride to the urgent care center. A couple of good Samaritans stopped, one guy who lived nearby and brought me some towels to clean off my face and another electrical contractor who stopped, cleaned things off with a water bottle and some gauze, disinfected my scrapes with some hydrogen peroxide, and put a couple of bandages on. Two quality guys! Amazingly, my bike made it through the crash fairly well, with just a couple of scrapes on the brake shifters. It took two weeks for me to feel good enough to get out on the road, and my shoulder will need some time to heal.
Total mileage = 25.9 mi
Total elevation gain = 1880'
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/122242665
