Aw crap. I don’t want to miss the Iron Hill Race this w/end. But, I’m older, wiser, smarter then to brake my back up doing an MTB race in my nearly recovered condition. But awwww, I want to do this race….crap!
IH has always been the place that I tested myself and my ride. I learned almost everything about MTB’ing that I can do by figuring it out there. I’ve taken people to IH to help them ride trails fast. IH was always the roughest place in town. Short and compact, if you missed a technical section once we would come back to it soon enough. Many people lost their fear of riding hard there.
My first rides, FSVS training rides, with Monty McNeil, Patton, Reuther, some others (mind slip) and some beginners like me. I had converted a SanTropez steel road bike to knobbies and track bars. It was just the top of the hill back then and they called it Cross Practice. The first race series (November-ish) was labeled as such. Trails were added over the years and Mountain Bikes came into fashion, meaning affordable. Toe clips, flat bars cut short, shocks were elbows and knees, some wore track cleats with spikes drilled in the toes. Aaaa, life was simpler back then.
Trails were added. 896 downhill first. Took us around the bottem and then along I-95 coming up the washed out old road, some called it the washed out creek trail. This was around the time shocks started showing up on sponsored riders bikes. After bombing the washout trail 5-7 times your hands stayed permanently curled to bar shape. Bryan Patton said to me after one of these races…”We have to get some shocks.” You could catch riders w/shocks on the climbs/flats, but following on that downhill was on a wing and a prayer.
I quit riding for awhile, but for about once or twice at month at Iron Hill. Three years after getting back in (to cycling) I won one there after flatting the previous year. Ranks top 1 or 2 of all time for me.
Iron Hill is My Race. I’ll miss it a lot this year… I got it next year though!…jus sayin’
denS
Click the photo 
for the pic’s
(ain’t the internets fun)
denS
Three weeks after my accident I am healing up well. XRays yesterday confirm that all breaks are basicly mended except T7 vertabrea, which still shows some signs of fracture.
Recap of injuries: 3-6(depends who you talk too)non-displaced rib fractures,Bruised lungs,mild concussion,fractures to T3 thru 6 with compression fracture to T7.
Back brace for 3 more weeks, then PT.
Here are some pictures from my field trip to the crash site. Click for a larger image (don’t X out or you will lose page,back arrow out).
d
The story that never dies and it shouldn’t. Seems that a story like this gets heavy press @ every 2 yr’s. A Velodrome in our area, I mean immediate area. Sure there’s T/Town,2 hr’s north but…
read on here: Philly com article
Go Dave Go. I’m in if I don’t get too old and achy first.
denS
