Band rolled into Atlanta last night and played to a full house at the Variety. Full moon always makes me feel funny, but that was cured by some pre-gig brews, followed by a couple of tall Franziskaners and some lively conversation at Porters post gig in celebration of a most excellent tour. Crawled into bed around 2:30am, alarm sounded at 8 and after rounding up the band, we headed north. The band dropped me with all my band-type gear and Sarah rolled up with all my bike related gear just as they were about to pull away.
30 minutes later we started the Pro1/2 race. There was 10 of us, I was in about 4th heading through the first two corners. Over the barriers someone went down. All I saw was a cluster of dudes and a bike in front of me, so I rode over it and caught on to Troy before the singletrack. I thought it might be the selection move, but neither Troy nor I wanted to force the issue so early, so I followed him until he bobbled, then he followed me until I clipped my left foot going over the second set of barriers (slammed my foot, really, might lose my entire big toenail). I saved myself the indignity of a crash by planting the bike, but as soon as I hopped on it was clear my front wheel hadn't faired so well. You can actually see it's not straight in this shot.
I jumped off, pulled off the wheel and started slamming it on the ground guerilla-style until it was fairly straight. After another 1/4 lap, I realized my front tire was going flat, so I slowly glided around the course begging for a wheel until Eric Boerman yelled to meet him in the pits. With a new wheel I got to work, but quickly saw that my race was over. After another lap or two I started to feel good and decided to stay on course regardless of it's futility. I think I finished 8th.
Single Speed started 20 minutes later, just enough time to borrow a tubular wheel from Nate. I was second going into the barriers and the guy in first stopped for a beer handup along with half the field. I took off into the woods, Jeremy C caught on and we started to distance ourselves from the recreational drinkers. I've raced Jeremy a lot and I know he's a great all around rider, usually stronger than me with more endurance, but I can move the bike around a little better than he can, so he was at a serious disadvantage on the narrow, windy course. I had a few seconds on him at the end of the first lap, which he shut down on the long finish straight, but after the singletrack the gap was up again and it only grew from there. I'd let too much air out of Nate's front tire, so I was forced to ride safer than I would have liked but it didn't matter.
Perfect course for a guy like me. Nonstop turns, no climbs, lots of dirt. Would have loved the chance to see how the Pro1/2 race unfolded with me in it. Hoping to head to Birmingham next weekend. Did I mention it was almost 70 degrees?
No comments:
Post a Comment