Disaster

Read more about the TTT here

Official reports from the RR here
and here

My report:
Saturday May, 12 was not a very good day for St. Olaf. However one good thing happened, our only woman, Caitlin managed a 30th place. Thats not bad at all, especially considering that this is her first season of racing. Nice job to her.
Then men however, did not have a good day...
Due to the extensive flooding, the race was put onto some gravel. Which I was cool with. During the womens race there were some many flats the first time through that they decided to neutralize the race for the men until after the gravel. In fact the race was even stopped until everyone was set. Good thing too, there were quite a few flats going through the mile and a half, including me. I flatted while waiting for the race so start, figure that one out. I got a neutral wheel (thanks to Shimano) and soon the race was off. It was a good 85 and calm. Very warm. The lap was going well for me, my legs were great, I was well hydrated, and I was near the front. Things could not have been going better. However for the rest of my team, things were not going well. Brandon has been sick, so about 15 miles or so in his heart rate went way up and he decided to call it. Eventually he went to the hospital to get checked out. He was just fine, besides being sick.
Soon after that there was a big crash in the back 1/4 of the field. Unfortunately Finn was involved. I talked to an official and ambulance drivers after the race, and Finn himself on the phone (he went to the hospital) and found out the story.
He said that the crash happened just in front of him, he either could run some people over, or try the ditch (which he has used successfully in the past). However this time was different. There was a big drop and some rocks at the bottom. Which Finn found. The official I talked to said he almost did not see him because the grass was so tall and he was so far down. When they got to him he was out I think. By the time he got pulled back up he was moving, but not remembering much. The ambulance drivers I talked with said that he was doing better when they dropped him off at the hospital. After he got to the hospital he was apparently having trouble breathing, I guess he hit so hard that he collapsed part of his left lung and had to get a tube inserted.
I talked with Finn on the phone a bit later last night and he was totally out of it, really groggy, maybe drugged up. I talked to him again today, he sounded lots better, but said everything still hurt. Finn wins the bad day award for sure.
The crash happened with about 10 miles left of the 30 mile loop. I had no idea it happened until I talked with some guys a bit later. Through the feed zone/hill (right at the end of the lap) there were a bunch of attacks. People were dropping bottle all over and things were crazy, the pack was just blown apart. I managed to take on a bottle and I chased the leaders up the rest of the hill, down the nice decent into the gravel. The gravel was so much fun, it was just a cloud of dust, and I was flying to catch on. I was passing people left and right. At one point there was a big crash right behind me. With about 100 meters left in the gravel and right after catching the leaders I heard the dreaded noise, pfffffft. Shit. flat. I pulled over took off my wheel and started to wait. A guy rode by and said it was 10 minutes until the wheel car. It was not, but when I did see the wheel car all I saw was it flash by. Apparently they were out of wheels. Thus my day came to a very early end. Sean finished, good for him! Read about that here.
Needless to say I was angry, I felt great and was having a good race. But that is bike racing I guess, not much I can do. And I definitely was not the only one, the rumor is that there were about 500 flats yesterday. There were only about 400 racers....

Waiting in the heat.