As of Saturday night, the weather forecast showed ominous ~45° snowy/rainy race conditions. Lucky for us racers (and spectators, for that matter) the most snow that we ever came across was en route to the venue - about 2 hours away.
Still, despite surprisingly pleasant weather, i gave myself the obligatory PRO hot embrocation rub-down before my warmup. If nothing else, i'm sure my competitors appreciated the pungent smell of essential oils wafting from my shiny calves on the starting line.
Lyle and i agreed to 'hold hands' for the first lap or two, as the combined Pro/Semi-Pro field was to race 4 ~9 mile laps. After last weekend's explosion i wanted to make damn sure that i had some gas left in the tank when the 2:40 mark rolled around.
I tried to play it cool for lap 1 - despite lyle opening a slight gap - and found myself riding for the remainder of the race with two other semi's.
I managed to shake two dudes (one of which is a Trek/VW regional pro... sweet!) in the final sustained climb with a road cycling-esque attack + time trial to the finish.
I finished a respectable 15th out of 24. Not too shabby considering more than half of these dudes were PRO's.
Lee had a solid ride, too - showing that guys old enough to be my dad can still roost with the best of 'em.
Lyle put in a strong ride - with the 'stache in full force and the mullet-a-flyin'.
Big props to Brooke for throwing down a mean 3 hour battle in the expert race.
Team manager, Dave Roth, blasting his way to a solid finish on what he considers "the best race course all season long".
Wes couldn't quite figure out where to stash his pump, so he rigged up some sort of custom helmet-mast.
Imagine the embarrassment his competitors felt losing to a dude with a roof rack on his head...
Arguably the best part of racing is spending time with your close friends. In which case, this weekend couldn't have been better.
Me, Wes and the beautiful soigneur/feed/photographer Kandace hanging around the expo post-race.
2 comments:
They were not "PRO" they were just pro.
If you don't believe me check out BKW.
It's official. I can retire now. I've made Alex's blog.
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