I was having the race of my life…

So Sunday was the Alpine Valley Race. Not usually my best course but I had good form and was looking forward to atone for my mechanical at Iola. Saturday I went down to Alpine Valley and rode a couple laps to check it out. I had a good idea what it takes to do well, basically hammer and get into the single track as quick as you can, then settle in and make sure to hammer in all open areas. Good plan I felt. Sunday I woke up, had some Life cereal and eggo waffles. Jess and I got down there just in time to watch the Citizen racers go. We get ready and my group was going first. From the “Goooooo” I was hammering, settling into second up the hill and was in 4th in the wave and 2nd in my age entering the singletrack. I held that until the second non-singletrack climb where two guys (one in my age) passed me and I settled in behind them as they were better singletrack riders so they could teach me something. I ended up riding the whole first lap including the part I couldn’t ride in pre-ride so I was excited. At the turn of the lap I passed the person in my age group to get into 2nd. We climbed again and on the second climb some XXX rider flew by us all and caught the race leader as well and he ended up winning our age group. We were catching the guy in 2nd though when on a small uphill…snap…my chain broke. About half way through the race I broke…guh! I quickly stop got my chain ready and grabbed my master link. No avail, my chain wasn’t repairable without a chain tool…and I left mine in the car. Last time I do that! I seriously wanted to cry...one mechanical I can handle but two in a row when I was about to have the two best finishes ever? So I watched people I really wanted to beat pass me. Then I thought maybe someone random would loan me a tool so I got on my bike and rode the downhill and two creek crossings asking for chain tools. No one had one they were willing to give up. Finally I stopped again when gravity stopped me. I worked for 10 minutes on fixing it by smashing it against a rock, by prying it with bike parts, etc…but no avail. So I did what I had to do, I walked. I finished the lap and took another. I’ll learn the hard way and after two mechanicals I really needed the points. 3.5 miles of pushing a bike sucked (I was able to ride the downhills so maybe 1.5 miles of walking, 1.5 of riding and another .5 of scooting. I finally finish right before Jess and in time to see the experts go. Somehow I still beat two finishers in my age group…crazy. Again I have to dwell on the what could have been of the day as I was almost certainly going to make my first age group podium and would’ve likely been in the top 15 overall by virtue of an early and fast wave.

Fortunately I got to live vicariously through others. Brozek represented our eave in his first sport race ever getting 15th and beating a lot of people! Jess finished hard and got another 6th which should move her into 4th place (she finished a good half-hour ahead of last year despite having a cold for a week.) Joel and Shiroma took 1-2 in the singlespeed race. Jen Jones (Kelson’s better 5/6ths) one the women’s sport overall, Kelson then tried to one-up her by winning his comp age group and getting 4th overall. And Garett raced and finished despite getting ran into a tree by an “unknown Chainsmoking Expert rider.” And then to top it all off Jerry had to podium (10th) in the Elite race and win some money in a loaded Elite race with no less than 4 pros racing. And then at Wheels on Willy Hertz got 3rd. So basically a great day for everyone…except me! But that is life, I’ll get a new chain and be back at Wausau!

Kelson trying to reclaim his hardcore status...or something...

On other notes:
-Beav got a job and will be teaching in New Richmond this fall
-We lost 3 of 3 in volleyball but all games were close (I believe we scored at least 10 in each game.)
-Watched Wheels on Willy Pro 1-2 race, some dude won in a 2up breakaway…winning loads of cash, 2 premes (one which was a date with two girls at one time) and the sprint for the win, domination!
-Hard week of training this week, and a bunch of race type events coming up as well.