Jill calls in from Steamboat after a hard crash

Listen to the latest call from this racer here!

Hi, this is Jill Homer.  I'm calling from Steamboat Springs.  I got here about 4:00 this afternoon on Friday.  Umm, stayed last night at Brush Mountain Lodge, which was really amazing.  I was just grinding up that loose gravel road about 10 pm when the owner waved me down.  Got a Quesadilla, got a warm place to stay out of the rain.  I know I was super stoked about that... kinda an unexpected surprise.  I was expecting to have to camp just a little bit south of there in the rain.  

But anyway, it was raining when I got up... rained the whole day into here.  Just until I got here, the sun came out again.  But it started raining really heavily when I got up the water shed divide and started down in the heavy rain.  The conditions were really bad:  muddy, nasty like getting close to that wheel-suck level even though it was pretty sandy.  It was just really wet.  And didn't quite notice at first, but my brakes were just shot.  I mean, I got new brake pads put on in Rawlins on the front, but I only had one spare and it was this stupid off-brand and they just disintegrated.  I mean, they were gone.  So at one point, I was going down this really nasty, rocky stretch, and I pushed on the levers, pulled them all the way in, and nothing happened.  I panicked and laid the bike down at a pretty fast speed in the r...

Hey, this is Jill Homer again, I thought I'd finish telling my story...

Anyway, coming down water shed divide I crashed pretty hard.  Hurt my left knee.  It hurt pretty bad.  And, adjusted my brakes so they were catching again but it was pretty sketchy.  Because, like I said, my front brakes were disintegrating.  My back brakes were pretty much gone because I'd used them the whole time and hadn't been able to find a replacement.  And, I really should've just walked it, but I was getting pretty scared about that wheel-suck-mud that I was going to end up carrying my bike for six miles and (...).  So I continued to ride my back brake and my knee was (...) and was really frustrated and the rain was just coming do down down. 

And finally rolled into the Clark's store... really cold actually at that point.  And, spent some time at the store, drinking lots of coffee, icing my knee, trying to get my core temperature back up, and just trying to work up the courage to do the last 20 miles into Steamboat.  It was a pretty low point.  But, as I came into Steamboat, my knee started to feel a little bit better as it warmed up.  It's still stiffens up every time I stop.  I hoping it's just a bruise.  It's pretty swollen.  But, like I said, I'm hoping it's a bruise and not something more serious.  But, at this point, I'm just in Steamboat getting my bike fixed as much as I can.  You know, I've had other problems, not just my brakes and they don't have a new wheel for me which I also need, but they're going help me as much as they can with my wheel.  And, they're at least being really helpful.  

But, I'm just trying to decide what I'm going to do at this point as far as continuing on today or waiting a night to see how my knee feels.  I'm just worried that it's stiffening up so much when I'm stopped, but it seems to loosen okay when I pedal.  Yeah, it's just a bummer, bad luck day.  But... hopefully it gets better.  The weather seems to be better for now.  But I'm not giving it any points for lasting any more than a few minutes... it's kinda how it has been this entire trip.  So, yeah, thanks for letting me leave a long message.  Hopefully the next time I call you will be in Silverthorne and not sometime before there, broken down again. 

Talk to you later, bye.