... and sometimes the bear eats you. Today at the Germantown Circuit Race, the bear ate me.
I actually like this course: .6 mi (aka 1K), start/finish at the highest point, the course is 2/3 downhill (with a sweet 120 degree turn near the start of the long downhill) and 1/3 uphill. A strong-guy course, and in the 4s I've felt like I could hang in such situations.
But not today: I felt good at the start, hung front ten for a while, and then started having a bit of difficulty on the hill. I'd start out near the front, and sag back to the back. Catch up on the downhill, and do it again. Until about 8 (of 25) laps to go, when I disconnected on the hill and couldn't find the punch to get back. I popped -- hard. I got lapped with four to go (I did take a good dig up the hill since Ian Newcomb was off the front, and I wanted to give him a little encouragement), and pulled off since the official said they'd be pulling riders. Everyone goes by, I'm lamenting my day, and the official comes over and say he's stopped pulling riders, and if I don't want a DNF I should get going. So I do, and I finish.
The high point of my race was a front-row seat for the sweet bike-handling by the Team Hungry guy who had a tube blow in the sharp downhill curve. With a rear flat, downhill at over 26 mph, in a sharp curve, with riders on three sides, he overcorrected, caught it, wobbled a bit, and slipped nicely to the side of the road -- upright. Very sweet, especially since I would've been one of about ten riders at least affected by a crash right then.
'Nuff said.
Oh, except: sorry for talking you into this one, Bret, and even sorrier I got in your head before the 3s start.
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1 comment:
Thanks for the compliment on the handling, Michael C. said you mentioned something about the abrupt end of the race for me. I am also glad I did not go down and more importantly neither did anyone else!
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