The Ciociaro Club Ontario Cup is a circuit race on an enclosed 1.35km track in the suburbs of Windsor. It is part of the O-Cup Road Series where a champion is determined by overall points after the seven races. The Ciociaro Club O-Cup is the 6th race in the series and this is the first year the O-Cup race has been held at the Ciociaro Club. I was racing today with the Masters 3/Cat 4 racers in the first race of the day. We were scheduled to start at 8:00 and the race would be a 45 minute, plus 3 laps, speed-fest around the 5 cornered, 1 little hill, enclosed track. The weather was forecast to be a scorcher so racing at 8:00 in the morning would be perfect for me.
I got up early but not too early. Waking up at 5:45 gave me plenty of time to get ready. I decided to wear my white plain jersey again (I did wash it though) because the OCA is much more strict on compliance with jersey regulations. I had a light breakfast and some coffee, not too much coffee and no allergy medication today. It worked, I wasn't jittery at all and, with the track being very familiar, the nerves of Saturday were completely gone.
I quickly packed up the car and drove over to the Ciociaro. It took a whopping 10 minutes to get there as I drove slow! Great to be racing in my backyard. I managed to get a good spot in the parking lot but there were lots of people already getting ready for the races. Package pickup was fast as things were nicely organized and I brought my number and swag back to the car. After pinning my number to my jersey, I put it on and got ready to ride around the track having a good 1/2 hour for a warmup.
Although I was told later that it needs to be head's up for best luck, I found a penny right where I parked my car. A lucky penny! I put it into my jersey pocket and knew that it would bring me luck for this race. I figured this had to be an omen as I was just getting ready to get on the track....too bad I didn't look to see if it was head's up or not.
I managed to chat with a number of different riders during the warmup and we even got together as a group of riders from the Windsor area with the different teams all meeting together. It was nice to see all the familiar faces and to know that these riders were good riders--it was going to be a fast race though...
The race organizers had us all line up at the start for the beginning of the race. There was a group of juniors also racing but they would start after us although they would be present on the track--not too much different from the Thursday night series. I was ready to go and was telling myself not to jump off the start. I had a really good position about 3 feet from the line with no one in front of me although I was on the left side. My plan was to pull into the middle and slowly fall back to watch the other riders and make any mental notes on riders to avoid.
The race started off fast and there wasn't going to be any warmup during this race. I managed to keep where I wanted to be and think I figured out who I would watch during the race for potential breakouts. Because I was thinking that it would be good for someone from Windsor to win, I decided upon 2 different strong riders from the Toronto area to stick to their wheels. Both were solid riders and, even with moving up and around the group, I felt confident holding one or the other's wheel during the race.
I was feeling really good and strong and knew that this race would either be decided by a final sprint or by a break fairly quickly. But, because we had the downhill in the circuit, any breaks were easily caught in the first part of the race although we were moving fast....
The race seemed to be very much like any Ciociaro race, riders were going strong, and the riders from the Windsor area were all looking very strong. I couldn't help thinking that someone, maybe me, from our area would win and there would certainly be people I knew on the podium after the race.My hopes were quickly put to rest at the 26:25 mark in the race. We were heading into the hill once again and a couple of riders attacked. But, in the middle of the group another rider decided he would counter the attack and jump too....although there were riders all around him!
From my perspective and what I learned after, it was this rider in the middle that was responsible for the crash. I was behind one rider from Vitesse and another Vitesse rider was on his left. The Vitesse rider on the left had his bike shredded as a rider to his left swerved to the right and decided to jump right in the path of the rest of us. The rider's rear wheel clipped the front wheel of the left side Vitesse rider. The result was that the left Vitesse rider crashed into the Vitesse rider in front of me. The Vitesse rider on the left had his bike shredded in the impact and went down hard. The Vitesse rider in front of me also went down hard. Because we were moving fast there was not too much time to react. I tried to move out right and get off the circuit but I was just too close. I launched over the second Vitesse rider's bike just like a ramp. Because I was moving out right, I didn't land on the pavement but off the side of the hill. Now there was a fourth rider who went down but I'm not too sure what happened there....
As I launched off the newly created bike ramp, I started to do an end-over. So, my body and head lead the way off the cliff (well, it was more like a 5 foot hill) with the result that I landed on my left side. Good news is that I didn't hit pavement, so no road-burn, and the end-over meant that my bike was protected by my body. Now, if you're not a cyclist, you may not appreciate how much this means but a lot of us want our bike to be fine even if it means getting hurt. 
I came down really hard in the grass and bush (actually learning later that it was full of poison ivy). I landed on my left side and rapped my head really good. My helmet worked as it was supposed to and so I was fully aware and not even dazed after the crash. But, as I sat there, I knew that I couldn't move my left arm so just sat there until help arrived. The rider I launched over came to talk to me and luckily, he was a doctor! He had some really, really nasty road burn and gashes on his arm. I said that I likely broke my collar bone because of the feeling I had but that he needed some repairs of his own.The final result was that the St. John's Ambulance guys helped me up and into their ambulance. My jersey was cut as I couldn't move my left arm to get it off. They delivered me to the EMS who took really good care of me. I didn't want to lie down though and stayed sitting all the way to the hospital. And, another rider ended up coming for the ride as he crashed on the final sprint.
I ended up at the hospital for 5 hours. They did a CT scan on my head and body to look for any internal damage but nothing was revealed. Although I did see the pictures and it looks like one side of my brain is not like the other, no surprise to anyone who knows me. I took it all as good news and it was confirmed that my collar bone was broke. I went to see an orthopedic specialist the day after and he confirmed that the collar bone was a clean break, meaning no surgery for the current time. But, he said that I may have fractured my left wrist and ribs even though there was no indication of breaks on the x-rays. Both really hurt although the swelling in my wrist went down fast with icing.
Although I didn't finish the race, it was one of the fastest (but not fastest) I have been at on the Ciociaro Club track. I recorded a top speed of 66 kph before my crash. Overall, the race I was in travelled 33.8 km with an average speed of 39.7 kph.
And, this race was really well done. With the track having new paint, to an early morning last minute clean up, with great organization and preparation, this race made the weekend a fantastic one for racing in our area. I think I'm not alone in hoping that the Ciociaro O-Cup happens again next year. It was a great job!
More images from Alan Henderson.
Race organized by: 3Sixty Cycling Promotions
Full results at: Ontario Cycling Association