Sometimes you eat the bar...

Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar, well, it eats you...

Is that some sort of eastern thing? (Far from it, Dude...)

Anyway, memorial day weekend has come and gone. I was looking forward to it as it is a big weekend of racing (duh). I "raced" all four days, but would say that I really only raced two of the days, and at that, I was really only a factor in one of the days. My typical bad luck carried into the weekend with a flat tire Friday during a little stint off the front. There was a group of 6 or 7 up the road already and the race was just chillaxin, cruising a long at whatever speed. We didn't have anyone up the road and since I was kind of bored, Sean and I decided that I could spice things up a bit. Being a way down on the GC, way behind the other group, and rather large, they figured I wasn't threatening and let me go. I had a decent gap on the field, at least 30 seconds, perhaps some more, and was pretty stoked to be off on my 40 mile solo journey to the finish line (that is if it stuck). At that instant, though, I started to feel the rim of my rear wheel. I just hit the brakes, stood on the side of the road with my hand in the air, and waited for a wheel change. I got it, but was unable to chase back on as I think someone moved to the front and started to reel in the original break after I was chewed up and spit out the back. I rode back in the with the 3/4 field until some ref told me I couldnt after another told me I could. Lame. At least when I flatted, the first 10 people of the field gave me the old groan and that sucks expressions. That made me feel kind of good, they wouldnt have done that had they thought I were a tool...

Snake Alley - it was a short experience, only 8 of 20 laps, which was kind of lame. I just had a bad starting spot and wasnt aggressive enough in moving up. Oh well, it was still fun.

Mellon City - made it about halfway through the race. I just didn't move up enough during the race and yo-yoed off the back for a while until I popped. I guess Im too fat to go up hills?

Rock Island - I actually hung with the race, which I was pretty stoked about. I mean, it was flat so there wasn't really anything to break it up, but it was a fast race. I had worked my way up to maybe the front third once, but then I got caught behind a crash early which put me back at the end. I stayed in the back third of the pack for the rest of the race despite efforts to move up. With a few to go Bryan and I got caught behind a crash on the backside of the course. I kind of sort of went down. I was forced off my bike and my bike got tangled in someone elses bike, but I didnt hit the pavement with anything except my feet. The chainring took a chunk out of my ankle, though, and now I dont know if my PBR socks will ever be white again.

So, in short it was a challenging weekend, but thats alright. Id rather be "racing" in the 1/2 field than animating and winning the 3 race - I want to be the best, so I might as well race with the best. I hated doing well in a 3 race just knowning that I really wasnt the best, that there was someone up the ladder there that had they been in the same race they wouldve shelled me. Now, if I ever win, I can know that infact I was the fastest guy there that day. I've got a ways to go until that happens, but this weekend was a nice eye opener and it just makes me motivated to ride more and harder. Anyway, here's a quote from Bode Miller that I kind of like (thanks R2G)

"When the challenge gets bigger, I just want to ramp it up more. My only worry is that at some point Im just going to die, but Im not that worried about that because, that will be it, and up until then I usually charge pretty hard, and it doesnt seem to get any less fun the harder you push"

Double Flat

So, getting 2 flats simultaneously at mile 20 of a 110 mile road race sucks. What sucks almost as much is chasing for 4.5 hours and riding 110 miles in a little under 5.5 hours pretty much by yourself only to miss the time cut by a few minutes...

on top of that, my corkscrew broke as I was trying to open my bottle of cheap wine

Perhaps I am going to get hit by a car tomorrow?

bummer man, at least andrew is still in it