Sorry to hear about that Joe.  Hope you heal up quick!  

Are you still able to ride?

@Joe Matunis

That sucks.  I hope it's not serious and you heal up easily and quick.  For my hand fracture last year, I probably could have gotten on the road much sooner, and definitely could have ridden far more indoors than I did--I tried tri' bars on a trainer, but really, it wasn't necessary at all, at least for my fracture.  

For me, at least, every time I get injured I replay the scene over and over in my head.  What if I did this, what if I did that, etc.  It's draining and often pointless. While you probably could have done something differently, there are countless other moments when you were saved from disaster by luck and never realized it.  Drivers making illegal turns, blowing through lights, people illegally crossing the street looking at their phone, and so on.  The time you blew through a red light and a car was coming fast from the side.  The tire that probably should have blown. The cable that luckily snapped as you were slowing down at an empty intersection.  Your quick save from the fishtail.  And more.

 " I've been hearing a lot of talk about the increasing number of, and severity of, crashes at those races this year."

This interests me as well, but I think it's really hard to tease out these numbers.  Randomness is hard to account.  If you look at data from car accidents, it appears that sometimes things that might seem to increase obvious danger results in drivers slowing down and thus driving gets less dangerous.  Back to bikes, thanks to lots and lots of marginal gains, all racing fields are probably traveling faster than ever, which means hitting the ground is going to cause more hurt.  

FWIW, I tend to think too much Zwifting and solo riding at the cost of less group riding could be one of the culprits.  There's no easy way to do a retrospective study and figure out if people Zwifting or training along more measurably reduces pack skills--in the bad old days, so much training was group riding.

I don't think big squads of young riders are an issue.  I don't know why either the size of the squad or the age of the members would make a meaningful difference.  Especially now that all men have to spend time in Category Five fields before moving on the 4's.  

Good luck Joe, what bummer luck, but glad it wasn’t any worse. Heal up soon and we’ll see you on the road in no time!

ah that sucks Joe, sorry to hear that. Hope you heal up fast!

@mugwump I tend to agree that Zwifting, as beneficial as it, reduces bike handling abilities. I remember once lock down ended and everyone came back to the races, there were SO MANY sketchy moments because lots of people had lots of new power and had not spend much time actually applying that power on the road.

As far as age being meaningful, I think that may come down to a difference of risk tolerance. Granted I haven't raced since the spring and maybe this says more about me than anything, but as I've gotten a few years older, I've definitely found myself giving more credence to risk in the risk vs. reward scenario. Generally, the potential crash just isn't worth it to me. When I was a bit younger and life was a bit simpler, the glory of a podium beckoned.

@GregHoge not at the moment. I can't bend the 3 outside fingers of my right hand. The xray showed a fracture of the middle finger. I'm seeing a hand doctor tomorrow. I'll ask him about when I can ride again.
@mugwump I definitely agree that group riding and pack skills need to emphasized and practiced.
@Matt Budofsky those risk vs reward scenarios have been playing in my head as well. I love racing at 
Floyd, but seeing so many riders going down so hard, so often has me wondering if it's worth the risk. 

Sometimes i get serious FOMO when reading race reports , but the fear of crashing overtook me 3 or 4 years ago  ,Its definitely an age thing , but i cant bring myself to race on the road anymore.

@Mark Taylor I've had a few crashes prior to this season, but none before that tooks weeks to recover from and have lingering issues like this last crash. I debated in my mind not going back to racing, but decided that I should go back, that the chances of another bad crash were slim. Watching all those riders go down on Tuesday, and only narrowly avoiding getting caught up in it, made me wonder if something had changed and if crashes were happening more frequently and with greater damage done. I raced a half dozen times at FBF last year without a crash. There were a number of older riders that would race there regularly last year. I would try to stay close to them, as they were very steady and predictable in their movements. I saw fewer to none of those riders this year, and part of my uneasiness comes from conversations I've had with riders who say they no longer race at Floyd because of the number of crashes. There has been blame put on the condition of the course, but it seems to me as if it's the same as it's been in all the years I've been racing there. I probably wouldn't even be thinking about it if I hadn't gotten banged up out there back in June. 

The age thing is for real, though. I know for a fact that my cognitive processing and reaction time are not what they used to be. I was kind of hoping that my (relative) experience and sense of self-preservation would keep me safe. It might indeed be time to leave the road racing behind. Gravel?

Cyclocross!!

Saw this petition on Change.org

https://chng.it/MfTLdDxFHM

It's to get racing back at FBF.  Probably will do nothing.  But I fail to see how signing it could hurt in any way.

sign it.  share it.