The drive down with Brad and Salah was cool. We drove through Palmer Lake. A small town north of monument and it was really nice. We hadn't planned on sight seeing, but if we didn't get off the highway I was going to pee in one of the many empty bottle littered at my feet. Turns out there was no on-ramp where we got off. So we began our journey toward Palmer Lake. So much for getting there super early.
The venue was typical Colorado. Dust cloud looming over the park. Loose terrain that could only be described by Brad as "talcum powder and kitty litter." There weren't many people there. Brad and I were the ONLY Fort Collins racers throughout the entire day, so shame on everyone else.
Crazy Joe himself was there. In the flesh. He's pretty excited to hear about how well the races are doing in his absence. Says he may try and make it up and told me I need to come try my hand at the Worlds ride on Wednesday morning in BoCo. I think that would be too much suffering in a 20 hour period for me.
Anyway, the race started. Some old guy pinched me off before the first turn. I tried shoving my hood into his ass, but he wasn't budging. I passed some guys in one of the 3 off-camber, down hill turns and was moving up through the field in the double barrier section. Then, the same old guy swings his pedal into my front wheel. He tries being gentle, I get rough and almost rip his seat off as I separate our bikes. Bend my spoke, take a chunk of paint off my fork, and lose time. Shit. I chase some more. Pass people on the long finish climb, and proceed to slide out in turn 1. Drop my chain on the outside. Play with my bike for a while. Lose more time. And then get back after it. Somehow, I'm not in last place at this point, and with a field of only 15. That's just bad for everyone else. I got going again. Passed a few guys. Then flatted in lap 5. Rode out the flat. Pitted. And got going again. Got lapped right after getting back on my bike. Got a "love tap" from Brady as he blew by. I sat on him for a lap, bobbled. Then rode in. I eventually started catching back guys and passed 3 in the last lap.
Brad had a rough go too and crashed with 3 laps to go. Not a great start for the KCCX / Verge p/b Challenge Crew (CO ed.), but we're super excited for Madison next weekend. From the looks of the photo on Jeff Winkler's blog their weekend was less than stellar as well.
Thanks Mountain Moon for the photos!
0 comments:
Post a Comment