Quickie...

"Hey let's sit on this guys wheel for the next 4 laps"
"Ok, then we can out sprint him at the line."
"Sounds good to me!"

Roscoe raced his second 1/2 race today. He pushed the pace in the chase group, but 5th was just out of reach and had a teammate sucking wheels in the photo above. I think Ross did the right thing in trying to bridge up to 5th. They got within 8 seconds, with Ross doing the bulk of the work. Better to try and come up a few seconds short than sit in and wonder "What If?" You killed it out there today, nice job!

For the non-Twitter folks here is my haiku Tweet re-cap.

Holeshot is all mine.
Loosing air fast makes slow turns.
Anger fuels fast legs.

Yep another holehsot squandered. This time by an untimely slow leak¿ Kept the lead into the techy twisty stuff and slowed the pace to a crawl to keep the wolves at bay before the pit as to not lose too many places switching bikes. It worked like a charm and came into the pits still in the top places. Unfortunately using the pit bike had not been on the agenda for today and as I had left the training wheels on with really slow clincher tires. I faded fast. Roscoe lent me a front wheel and I set off on a terror of passing people (this seems to be an unsettling trend of mine this season) All my good legs are used on bad days. But man was it FUN! I busted my ass catching and passing as many groups as I could. I pushed myself to a starry eyed frenzy for the next 6 laps. It was nice to hear a few folks ask what happened because they said it was clear I was riding much faster than where my placing was today. I can feel the form coming, now if I can just get the luck to go with it. Maybe I need to find my Power Animal...

How Big of a Screwdriver Do You Need?

I'm seriously hoping that the pain in my knee will disapparate when the screws come out Nov. 12. Roscoe, I hope you're reading the film!

Racing....

A lot of racing the past couple of weeks.

We took the mwi love down to the USGP in KY, it was Awesome. Green Monsters, face plants, pit problems, first races, new friends, old friends....

I had to overcome some first lap issues both days, but raced my ass off passing as many people as I could. So despite my poor results I am happy with the form that is coming.

Yesterday brought a 4 week home stretch for racing and the Halloween race. I have a serious love hate relationship with this race. I really like the course and it should in theory suit me, but I have never had a good race there. So this year I decided to change my approach and embrace the day.

I give you Mr. Smartie Pants

Yes my "costume" was a bit lame, but I did make an attempt to get in the spirit and dispel the demons I have with this race. I managed to take the hole shot and keep it most of the first lap. I boycotted the bunny hop barrier again as I think it is STUPID. (Yes I can bunny hop, but that is not the point). I fell off the pace the second lap, which if fairly standard for me. Then came roaring back! I caught the chase group and promptly attacked. This split the group into Chad (fellow mwi crew member), another guy and myself. Nice work if I do say so myself. Chad caught me sleeping a bit on the last lap and came around unexpectedly, I managed to shut the door on our companion on the narrow section after the run-up, but left a little too much room to close down to Chad on the last 1/2 of the course. It was another day of racing well and I can see the form that I want for the end of November coming!

It was AWESOME to see Mr. Popper and Mrs. Popper come up from the Windy city to race and bring Tall Mike with them.

It was also nice to see Dry Hump Saturday make the trip with them...

6 dozen cupcakes.

Cupcake hand-ups are awesome if you aren't the one taking it> they come right back out.

Roscoe went on up to play with the bike boys in the 1/2 race. He beat 6 guys and didn't get lapped by Tristain Shouten who podiumed in the Toronto UCI a couple of weeks ago. Way to go Roscoe!