Jordan Rapp badly injured -- hit by vehicle in California

We all know and love Jordan. I heard about this when I was traveling in London but this is the first chance I've had to post this. Slowtwitch, which has a special relationship with Jordan, was on top of this right away.

Jordan -- hang in there man. If there is anything we at TT can do, please let us know. Jill, you have our support. This type of ridiculous unnecessary accident puts in perspective so much. It simply sucks. Jordan is such an incredibly intelligent, gifted and driven athlete; he is so careful and so thoughtful. This makes no sense. None.

Here is a copy of what Slowtwitch has to say.

"Professional triathlete Jordan Rapp [winner of 2 Ironman races last year] was struck by a car while riding his bicycle yesterday evening. He was rushed to and remains at St. Johns Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, California.

According to his wife, Jill Savege [also a professional triathlete and former Olympian], Rapp suffered numerous broken bones including his clavicle [collar bone -- a common bicycle fall injury] and scapula [shoulder blade -- much less common], as well as contusions and lacerations about the head and neck. His doctor reports, according to Savege, that Rapp lost between two and three liters of blood [that is shocking ...] as a result of the accident. He remains in the intensive care unit."

We have more updated information from this blog by Simon Whitfield.
Simon's Blog Entry Saying "Jordan is going to be ok". That is the best news we could possibly have heard.

The car did a hit and run. The police are searching for the vehicle. The police suspect a farm worker (happened around time they get off duty in that area) who is probably afraid for multiple reasons to come forward. Another left hand turn victim (Tom Toal). Good news is that "Rapp's brain function is normal, and there is no indication of nerve or spinal cord injury."

What we all care about most is that Jordan gets well and that Jill is OK. Words fail to describe the stupidity and horrific absurdity of such an accident. Thank god that Jordan is recovering.

Two years ago, two promising young cyclists were hit head on by a police car while riding with a group in California. They were killed. They never had a chance.

Ride as if your life depends on it. Even an incredible cyclist like Jordan or a highly experienced cyclist like Tom can get hit. Words do not suffice.

Pain Management

Jens Voigt sums it up best.  When you are hurting...

2010 TARGETRAINING Indoor Duathlon Results

The 2010 Targetraining Indoor Duathlon consisted of a 3.1 mile treadmill run, followed by a 15.34 mile indoor bike ride on with a hilly finish, and a second 3.1 mile treadmill run.

Fifteen competitors turned out over the weekend to give their legs an early season test. The woman’s event was won by Libby Kaplan, with a time of 1:33:56 the men’s race was won by Rick Klutey in a time of 1:23:21.

For a list of events and classes visit www.ttwestport.com

NAME         RUN 1   PACE   BIKE   MPH   RUN 2    PACE      TOTAL
Rick Klutey 0:19:32 6:17 0:43:07 20.87 0:20:42 6:39 1:23:21
Bob LaBanca 0:20:00 6:26 0:43:02 20.91 0:22:13 7:09 1:25:15
Vinnie Dejana 0:21:58 7:04 0:48:07 18.7 0:23:23 7:31 1:33:28
Libby Kaplan 0:24:21 7:50 0:44:16 20.33 0:25:19 8:08 1:33:56
Abe Holland 0:24:05 7:45 0:45:12 19.91 0:24:54 8:00 1:34:11
Mariano Castro 0:21:49 7:01 0:50:42 17.75 0:22:27 7:13 1:34:58
Tyler Agostino 0:18:43 6:01 0:49:59 18 0:27:45 8:55 1:36:27
Paul Filanawski 0:25:05 8:04 0:44:48 20.08 0:30:54 9:56 1:40:47
Dave Burton 0:24:46 7:58 0:54:50 16.41 0:26:30 8:31 1:46:06
Sam Parker 0:28:55 9:18 0:53:55 16.69 0:33:02 10:37 1:55:52
Cornelia Parchment-Horn 0:30:33 9:49 0:56:53 15.82 0:32:33 10:28 1:59:59
Jason Aepli 0:27:48 8:56 0:57:44 15.58 0:38:21 12:20 2:03:53
AnnMarie Massey 0:29:41 9:33 1:00:18 14.92 0:36:40 11:48 2:06:39
Philip Spielman 1:00:30 19:29 1:04:29 13.95 0:58:20 18:46 3:03:19
Kristin Budden 0:20:24 6:33 0:44:40 20.14 DNF DNF

My First Crit

This past Sunday I participated in the Bethel Spring Series Women’s Open Crit. While I have experience with bike time trialing in triathlons this was the first time I had ever done a solo bike effort and a draft legal race.

The morning started with Allie Lawler (she did her first crit two weekends prior) and I carpooling up to the race. We talked a little about tactics (what we knew of anyway) and about this new fun type of racing that we were trying out. I mentioned I didn’t know how I would feel since I biked almost 4 hours the day before with the Kristin and a few others – luckily not too hard since she was racing Sunday too.

Once we got to the race we checked in and warmed up. Thank you Eneas for providing a great WU routine – it worked perfectly. Spoke to a couple of girls from other teams before the race – they all mentioned that it was going to be a fast race because a lot of strong riders showed up and not to get discouraged if I was dropped. Just before the race we did one loop around the circuit then lined up for the start. Carlos and Lucinda were there and wished us all luck. Right next to me was fellow TTer Claire doing her first crit also. Just before the start we got scolded by the official -my number was crinkled and Claire’s was upside down. Things to know for next time! The official described some sort of prime - I didn’t really understand that and then we were off…

The race was 22 laps and the Women’s field had about 35 participants. I had a bad start and ended up in the middle of the pack for the first few laps. I had never been so close to so many riders in my life and I’m not going to lie…it freaked me out a little bit. However, after about 5 laps I started to settle in and get a better feel of the group. I was surprised at how controlled the pace was and thought…OK this is not so bad. Allie stayed towards the front most of the time and I tried to stay just a little behind her. During the race the bell rang a few times and the speed picked up – I followed the accelerations but didn’t really know what I was doing – I was just trying not to get dropped or let a breakaway happen.

With a few laps to go, Allie got in a great position out in front and pushed the pace to spread the field out a little. With one lap to go Allie put the hammer down and pulled the stronger riders out of the pack and into more of a paceline with me in 4^th position. Going into the last turn I started going harder (though I think I went to soon and was in the wrong gear). I was in third place with about 15 meters to go but fell back to 6^th as I ran out of steam and awkwardly tried to sprint out of the saddle. More things to work on for next time J

After the race Carlos gave us some pointers. Once results were posted Allie and I drove home chatting the whole way about how much fun we had and that we could not wait till next weekend to do it all over again!

NYC Half Marathon

Not sure if other TTers were present on this beautiful day in NYC, but Kristin Budden ran also and I'll allow her to post her own superb results after a FOUR HOUR bike ride yesterday.

I "only" rode about two hours and ran for 10 minutes yesterday, and forunately I didn't feel wiped out at all for today's run. Good thing too, since the weather was perfect and the crowd was into it!

This course has us do 8 miles in Central park, then run over 7th Ave. and through Times Square to the West Side Highway and down to Battery Park. The Central Park portion is somewhat of an exercise in biding one's time given the rollers there. I started roughly 40 seconds back from the front line, and while I was able to have my time "bidded" (bid? bidden?), I grew impatient fairly quickly and started weaving in and out of slower traffic. That said, I think the slower first mile(s) helped me later as my first three 3-mile splits were 18:22-18:15-18:15, with the next mile a bit tough but the final 5K under 19 minutes. I saw that I had a shot to go under 1:20 with 800M to go and I was able to do it! 1:19:50 for 5th in my AG!

The race had nearly 11,500 finishers (577 in my AG), a record for the race, which was won in under 60 minutes (again). Wow.