Here we are on the cusp of Labor Day weekend. Another road racing season has come and by Monday it will be gone for me. For the first time, I will be in town and not racing all the races of the Gateway Cup. There is a little regret but in early August, when we had to register, I was racing poorly and could not justify spending around $150 to get my butt kicked four times.
I made the decision to skip the first two races of the weekend. Lafayette is normally an okay race for me but the last couple years have turned into a mess in the final laps. There were at least 4 crashes in the final 4 laps last year. For whatever reason, Lafayette always produces a number of wrecks and this year I decided to play it safer and skip the race. It will be fun to watch, though.
Washington Ave is the other race I decided to skip. Neither of the two editions of the race have caught my fancy so this was easier to not attend. The atmosphere was pretty good but the roads were sub-par and for whatever reason I never had good sensations at the race. Unfortunately, after not registering, the course was moved a few blocks west and changed to a figure eight course. Now I would not have minded trying out the new course. Oh well. What's done is done. Maybe my fresher legs will pay dividends on The Hill and on The Loop and make for a good weekend.
The weekend should be better than last weekend. After two flat tires a couple weekends ago, I loaded up the bike Saturday and found yet another flat tire after not riding that bike all week. I changed the tube in Columbia before the ride and set out on our journey with the usual riding partners. Three quarters of a mile later, my tire blew yet again. This time it left a gash in the sidewall and my day was done. A trip to the bike shop was needed. New tubes, new tire and, desperate to solve the flatting problems, even new rim tape was purchased.
Sunday's ride went fine, thank goodness. Four flats in about 1.5 hrs of riding time is a bit much and I was more than happy to be free of the flat tires. On the second half of the ride we stopped in Haute Arete for a drink. Giuseppe and Patrice rolled out of the parking a little ahed of Queen, Marco and I. They were out of our sight as we descended Hillsboro-Parque de Vallee. We rounded one of the sweeping bends to find both their bikes in the middle of the road and neither of them in sight. You are instantly scared for your friends and concerned at what you will find when you roll up to the scene. A couple seconds later, I see Patrice hobbling around in the grass with ripped up shorts and grabbing at his lower back and butt. Giuseppe, meanwhile, was across the street rolling around in the grass from front to back in obvious pain. Apparently, some fool in a Jeep decided to turn into a side street right in front of them and they needed to take drastic action to avoid an even worse outcome. After several minutes, they shook off their injuries as best they could and we continued on, albeit at a more relaxed pace.
Since then, I have continued my CX training and mixed in some barrier training on Wednesday with Jay. That went well except for one attempt at a rushed remount. As soon as I jumped, I knew trouble was coming. Landing on the saddle was not even an option. It was not pretty as my inner thigh landed on the rear tire. Ouch! It cut me a little and created a really nice bruise but nothing serious. I would rather have a good bruise than doing the endo that Jay did after hitting a BIG hole in the grass. He's lucky it did not happen on pavement or he would really be hurting.
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I made the decision to skip the first two races of the weekend. Lafayette is normally an okay race for me but the last couple years have turned into a mess in the final laps. There were at least 4 crashes in the final 4 laps last year. For whatever reason, Lafayette always produces a number of wrecks and this year I decided to play it safer and skip the race. It will be fun to watch, though.
Washington Ave is the other race I decided to skip. Neither of the two editions of the race have caught my fancy so this was easier to not attend. The atmosphere was pretty good but the roads were sub-par and for whatever reason I never had good sensations at the race. Unfortunately, after not registering, the course was moved a few blocks west and changed to a figure eight course. Now I would not have minded trying out the new course. Oh well. What's done is done. Maybe my fresher legs will pay dividends on The Hill and on The Loop and make for a good weekend.
The weekend should be better than last weekend. After two flat tires a couple weekends ago, I loaded up the bike Saturday and found yet another flat tire after not riding that bike all week. I changed the tube in Columbia before the ride and set out on our journey with the usual riding partners. Three quarters of a mile later, my tire blew yet again. This time it left a gash in the sidewall and my day was done. A trip to the bike shop was needed. New tubes, new tire and, desperate to solve the flatting problems, even new rim tape was purchased.
Sunday's ride went fine, thank goodness. Four flats in about 1.5 hrs of riding time is a bit much and I was more than happy to be free of the flat tires. On the second half of the ride we stopped in Haute Arete for a drink. Giuseppe and Patrice rolled out of the parking a little ahed of Queen, Marco and I. They were out of our sight as we descended Hillsboro-Parque de Vallee. We rounded one of the sweeping bends to find both their bikes in the middle of the road and neither of them in sight. You are instantly scared for your friends and concerned at what you will find when you roll up to the scene. A couple seconds later, I see Patrice hobbling around in the grass with ripped up shorts and grabbing at his lower back and butt. Giuseppe, meanwhile, was across the street rolling around in the grass from front to back in obvious pain. Apparently, some fool in a Jeep decided to turn into a side street right in front of them and they needed to take drastic action to avoid an even worse outcome. After several minutes, they shook off their injuries as best they could and we continued on, albeit at a more relaxed pace.
Since then, I have continued my CX training and mixed in some barrier training on Wednesday with Jay. That went well except for one attempt at a rushed remount. As soon as I jumped, I knew trouble was coming. Landing on the saddle was not even an option. It was not pretty as my inner thigh landed on the rear tire. Ouch! It cut me a little and created a really nice bruise but nothing serious. I would rather have a good bruise than doing the endo that Jay did after hitting a BIG hole in the grass. He's lucky it did not happen on pavement or he would really be hurting.
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