Bunny Hop or Die

So, last weekend at Kletzsch Park was tough. I felt terrible, the legs felt terrible, went nearly full on vomitron on the first lap (usually this comes around the 4th lap for me) and I was dreading writing a post for the site. I was thinking about it all week, reflecting on what I could have done better, what went well and what I need to work on. It basicly boiled down to my bike driving in moderately muddy conditions was friggin' asinine and my climbing ability has been severly lacking since not riding so much on the road these past couple months. Nonetheless, I decided to to keep my fingers still this week until after Halloween Cross at Washington Park.

Redemption

I was so jacked up this morning I couldn't sleep with the anticipation of today's race. Up an hour and a half before my alarm, I headed to the garage to do some minor wrenching and bike prep on the Blue's. Put down breakfast and some Java and off to the races the lady and I went. I was half expecting another year of ridiculous lines at this race as it seems to draw the even crazier crazies out! But to my dismay, no waiting! Sweet. Hooked up with Chili just before my warmup and he strapped on a pair of his Easton EA70 tubulars wrapped with Grifo's. With a bit of tweaking by top notch wrench - Heman, I was off to get my tubular cherry popped.....and I was sold pretty much right away. They just roll over everyting so nicely and feel so supple.

Anyways, lets get to the racin'. Good position in the start chute and into the first corner. Sitting top 5. Exactly where I need to be. I heard carnage just before the hard right that consisted of lots of wheel rubbing, followed by "WHOA!" and the crunching of some carbon. Sitting 5th wheel on Lap 1, managed to pass a feller before the tree section leading up to the Coffin Hop. Mantained that and started closing down on 3rd wheel. I started to become a bit foggy and didn't see a lot more than 15 feet in front of me on the next lap and a half but he had maintained about a 50m gap on me in the open power sections. Made up a good bit of ground remounting soon after the barriers on the run up, although not quite where I wanted to remounted, but I felt that I needed to run just a bit to get my momentum up as the barriers were pretty far up the hill. Unfortunately I fell victim to a mechanical while remounting the first set of barriers and my seatpost sitting down with my saddle just about resting on my top tube. Luckily I managed to ride, feeling like little kid with an ill fitting bike, back to the pit where I had stashed Dr. Road Rash's C bike in case of an emergency! Chili and Jess conjured up a guesstimate of where my seatpost should be and were waiting on the next lap with A bike in hand. Bell lap now and I've lost a bunch of places between pitting, riding like a midget, and then driving the boat - aka Aaron's C bike (and I never realized until today how big that bike is for me haha!). I think I may have made one pass and also got passed on the last lap, but it was quite a blur between me gasping for air and my legs about to fall off in pain.

All in all 13th on the day isn't too bad considering the mishap and double pit. I'm good with that and looking forward to Estabrook next weekend. Unfortunately going to have to miss Wizard Cross this Sunday Funday as I currently blogging from work....but if I take a little nap, I'll be good to go for an early AM departure to Madtown right? Man I wish!

- P Bro out!