race report

#9 - #9 - #9

wasn't my day. felt great at the start of day - the preride was good (except for one pitch over the handlebars). any ways, when our group went off i was feeling pretty confident, after all i had ridden well against all the guys in our group (the same ususal suspects). well 5 minutes in on the up hill lead in, i was being dropped. what the hell. for the next 20 minutes guys kept passing me (this was starting to get on my nerves) finally during a run up section i discovered that my back wheel had shifted and was rubbing against my brake - baddly. so out come the tools and i start to fix the problem - more guys pass me. as i am working on my bike this guy wearing a woodcock jersey pulls up beside me and says "can i have a drink of water, i dropped my water bottle." before I can answer the dude picks up my camel back and starts to drink from it. i can't believe what i am seeing. i tell him, "i have enough water for my race," he says okay and continues on. shit. not only is that bad form, it is illegal - i can't believe he did that. finally, i get my wheel issue straightened out and start to get back into race. slowly i start to reel some guys in, thinking all i have to do is to stay smooth, keep the pedals turning, and i might be alright. well no - how about a flat. f*#k, so now i get to fix a freaking flat. well i have a C02 inflater which i've never used and manage to discharge half of it on to my hand as i am inflating the tire - at least my hand was cool now. so i managed to finish the race with about 20lb of pressure in the back tire - but i finished ninth overall. not stellar, but still a day of racing in grand beach which is always fun.

ciao.