I had a poor start but when the race began to split up, I was able to ride across the gaps and found myself at the tail end of a four man lead group and feeling comfortable. Then something strange happened. On the course there was a vertical plastic pole marking an intersection. It was on a spring like the slalom poles that ski racers knock out of their way and then the pole springs back up, only this one was only about four feet tall. This was a permanent feature, not part of the course construction. The lead rider hit this pole and then it bounced around and whacked each of the following riders as we passed. It happened to hit my front cantilever brake and knocked the brake block out of alignment so that my brake was rubbing. I spent a few futile moments trying to fix the brake and then rode the crippled bike around to the pit.
By the time I was on my spare bike I was running DFL and extremely frustrated. In my mind, I belonged in the lead group and every one else just needed to get the hell out of my way. I was storming through the field passing dangerously and yelling at people. Think of the 1966 movie "Grand Prix", I was like the Yves Montand character during his final fatal drive. It was going well, but was destined to end badly. Finally I tried a stupid pass where there was no room and the other rider shut the door on me. Our bikes tangled and I fell off to the left. I jumped up, picked up my bike, realized that I needed to straighten my bars, did that. Before getting on the bike, it occurred to me that my leg hurt some and it might be a good idea to have a look before continuing. What I saw was that my shin was open to the bone for five inches (12.7 cm) and three inches wide. I walked off the course, dropped the bike, sat down and clamped my hands over the wound and waited for help to come. Surprisingly there wasn't much bleeding. In the end there was just a trickle of blood to my ankle, not the torrent I expected. I assume I must have cut the leg open on a wooden stake used to mark the course. There was nothing else in the area.
Someone came to my aid almost immediately, asked to see the damage, was suitably shocked and left to get help. I was on the extreme far side of the course from the start/finish and EMT, so it took a while for help to arrive. I spent the next 10-15 minutes sitting there holding my leg. Several other people came by and asked to see the wound and I refused. They all eventually left. I had a lot of time to just sit there and think about things. I was gasping, but not because there was terrible pain. I suppose I was just in shock from the sight of the wound. The other racers eventually came around again and we had some brief exchanges like, Bret, are you alright? followed by No, not really.
The ACA has a rule that there has to be an EMT on site at every race, no matter how small. I was really thankful for that. The EMT was a young woman who very competently, rinsed and wrapped the wound and before long I was walking around gingerly. I felt like I could drive myself to the hospital but my friends talked me out of it due to the shock. One drove me back to Boulder Community Hospital while another drove my car home for me.
The hospital emergency staff took the wound very seriously. I had a crew of three in HazMat gear flushing the wound with a saline/antibiotic mixture. During the treatment, there was a steady stream of staff coming by to see the wound. I would have thought that they saw this sort of thing all the time, but they said no. They told me that they didn't plan to suture the wound for three days. The plan was to swell the wound with saline, pack it with gauze and let the saline seep into the gauze for three days, hopefully taking any bacteria with it. This worked well as the wound healed cleanly. I was on crutches for a few days, back on the bike within a week but didn't try to do any cross again until my skin had healed six weeks later. I couldn't bear the thought of splitting it open again. By that time the season was almost over. I did one race with a soccer shin guard and almost got lapped by the winner.
IN 2005 I came back and won the race where I got injured and went on to have my best cross season ever.
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