More In The Middle

Well hello. SO the last time I wrote I said I was going to start writing about my escapades in racing again and, well, life happened. After being out on the West Coast for the last 4 years, I decided to take a job at HED Cycling and move back to Minnesota. It wasn't a hard decision to make really. More money, lower cost of living equals better life. Although I guess I was homesick for SLO a few weeks ago.

So before I moved I tried racing the road bike one last time in Santa Cruz, but with the morning temps on the cool side, my asthma flared up again, taking me out of the race. I'm glad that that is over really, I never really was able to get a handle on my asthma out there for some reason. But it was cool to get up to see Santa Cruz before I left the coast for the wide open spaces of the mid west.

I got back to Mn in late April, the weather, well, it was terrible. Rain and even a few flurries, welcome back! After getting settled in at work Memorial Day weekend crept up and a nice trip home to ride the mtn. bike was exactly what I needed. Then It was back down on Monday for a crit at the Target HQ in Brooklyn Park. That didn't go well from the time I woke up. It was rainy, windy and a bit cold. I arrived to the race site wondering if I should've even bothered getting up early. After an hour, the rain moved on, but the pavement was still wet, I decided to give it go. Never raced road in Mn anyways.

So the whistle blows and I'm off with a group of about 40 other 4/5's, yes, 4/5's. The first 20 min of the 30 min crit was good, stayed at the front, didn't do too much work and was feeling comfortable. Then with 7 laps to go, the sketchy riders started trying to get position, and that's when it happened. After staying trouble free, someone went to the front and tried to drill it, but, his foot came unclipped, and down he went, taking the guy in front of me and me down. At first I didn't think anything of it, nothing was broken, but then, I realized I couldn't breath. Had the wind knocked out of me pretty good. Then after 10 min on the ground I got up and knew that the body slam I took was going to have some effect on me, and sure enough, as I'm writing this some 2 weeks later, I'm still sore and bruised.

But with all that, I'm heading to Wausau to hang out with some friends and ride my mtn. bike, sould be a good weekend of fun. Maybe I'll start checking in more too.

Top 10

First crit of the year and I got 9th. Not a bad start to the year. It was pouring rain on the way down to Goleta, and it kept up until about 20 minutes before the start. With barely a warm up, I was on the line. Really sketchy out there, and with 8 laps to go the big wreck I'd been waiting for happened. Luckily I was not taken out, but at least 10 other people were. So I think I'm getting used to this road racing, but two weeks out is the first mountain bike race of the year too. Season is on the way.