Walloped at mile 6 by an suv. Knocked off and set sailing...into the ground. Beaten, bruised but you can't keep me down. I'll share some of my thoughts about the crash and the day. Once I was able to sit up and assess that I had nothing broken, I started to become a bit wary about riding on the road. I had thoughts creeping in about turning around and going home. But then I just talked myself into continuing on at a very slow pace just to try to get back in the groove of pedaling. The adrenaline was still high enough that I didn't feel a lot of pain but the first few miles after I was on high alert of my surroundings being a holiday weekend there were tons of traffic. I managed to make it to the base of a long gradual climb. I basically said to myself I'll just get to the top take a break see how I feel see where I am mentally. I meant a bunch of riders at the top we chatted for a bit and the views of course were very calming. A few deep breaths to get my heart rate down and my mind straight... but at this point I was starting to feel a little bit of soreness. I have to say the disc brakes were a huge advantage because I wasn't able to really apply a lot of pressure but I still had good braking power if needed. So I began my descent of Gold Camp Road pushing as hard as I could, in fact because of the compact crank I geared the bike out with a disappointing 42 mile an hour top speed. My confidence was back and I was cornering with mild aggression. By the time I got to the two hairpins I was a bit tired and the road was a little chewed up, I aired on the conservative side rather than pushing but honestly I'm a little disappointed with 7th Place. 24 miles after the crash I was glad to be back home, as I was starting to become really stiff and sore and now a few hours later it's definitely much worse. The felt uhcp carbon disc rental bike with 28mm Vittoria tires performed really well except not having enough gears. Without a doubt that was the toughest 29 miles I've ever ridden in 14 years of cycling. 😎 #htfu #power through My daughter says I'm tough as an old leather shoe... 😃