the crash

This morning was our most relaxed since we've been here. We took our time getting up and going. We still had an hour before meeting with Andrew and Brentley to spin on the crit course so we decided to drive out to the site of the Flight 93 crash. It was a moving experience for all of us. We learned quite a bit about the last moments on that flight, how the courageous men broke through the cockpit door with the serving cart, how the stewardesses boiled water to pour over the terrorists, how there was a passenger pilot who would have been able to retake control and how the terrorists were the ones to crash the plane after the cockpit was rushed by the passengers. There was only one recognizable item left from that crash that made a 25 foot deep crater...it only had a slightly burned cover - but other than that was completely intact. It was a Bible.

There was an awful crash today during the 17/18 road race that resulted in two riders being airlifted. One of them was Justin Williams from Rock Racing who was preparing for Worlds. He was severely hurt. I spoke with a mom of a rider who was one of the front 20 in the original wreck...by original I mean the first who went down. 40 - 50 came storming down the descent and happened upon the wreckage and ended up hitting, wrecking and landing on those who were down. You can imagine how traumatizing that would be. Some riders who weren't in the carnage quit the race. It took over an hour to clean up and clear everyone out. The mom I spoke to said her son told her that a rider in the very front corrected away from the side of the road (they were going about 50mph on the descent) and it caused the others in the line to move to the side and two bikes connected and that's all it took. Other people told me that bikes were flying up in the air and everywhere. So, again, please pray for safety out here on the courses.