My husband has been encouraging me to try bicycle racing, saying I have the right body type for it. There is one reason why I won't: the crashes. My husband, a bike racer, has been involved in numerous crashes in his races, and I've had the pleasure of attending to his large patches of road rash. There are dark pigmented large scars all over his body, and some spectacular injuries (ever had sprocket teeth jammed deep into your calves?).

Another reason: He has had his expensive bicycles destroyed--two of them.

None of these crashes were caused by him, and in fact, he has avoided more crashes than he has been in. I have been present when the front pack in his category of 30 riders crashed rounding a corner into the final sprint. The sound was sickening, and an ambulance took away at least one rider. The remaining 70 riders following in the middle pack managed to avoid the pileup.

It might be worth it for some, but I will stick to my no contact triathlons with their no drafting zones for now. I enjoy riding in a pack with roadies so it's not the close contact that stops me. It's the fact that I enjoy wearing summer dresses and having mostly unscarred legs.