Queeny Update

Sunday was Bubba #7 or #8. Officially, it was to be Bubba #7, but with the additional night race at Creve Coeur, I guess it was bumped to #8. Doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, I guess. What did matter was that we finally got a little taste of Northern Belgium weather with light snow, bracing winds from the north, and temps in the low 30's. The feeling was right and the course was within a mile from my house, so there was no way I was skipping out. I can't say the same feelings were had by others as we only had 30 B racers on the line at the start. And as I looked around, they were most of the serious (read fast) dudes, too. I quickly shaped my strategy as this...don't come in last place.

I had a decent start and was riding somewhere around 20th and doing fine in most of the technical sections. I really could never find the right way to make the grass climb and seemed to always lose places on that part of the course. I seemed to make it back in the turns, but that climb really set the tone for my day of suffering. Most of my race was with Bill Howells (The Hub) and Ian Sasek (WildTraks). We traded punches riding different parts of the course with differing levels of proficiency. I can't say that I made a whole lot of mistakes, I just didn't have anything extra to bring to the fight. Bill always seems to have a little extra boost when he needs it and Sunday was no exception. His greatest win was surprising me as we made the gravel road climb up the center of the course late in the race. As I reeled in Ian, I looked off to my right to see where Bill was and to see if we'd dropped him. I didn't see him, didn't hear him, and was briefly confused. Then, I turned to my left to see him standing on the pedals and gassing away from us. Mentally, that effort (or my lapse of thinking) really broke me down.

The see-sawing continued back and forth and in the end, Bill and Ian got a nice gap on me going up the grass climb. I purposely backed off a little hoping they'd ease up heading into the more technical sections of the course. My feigned backing off seemed to work and as I turned off the paved road, I pinned it and made an attempt to get back onto their wheels by the barriers. Unfortunately, Bill looked back to see me attacking out of the saddle and he accelerated a little. I had already accelerated hard enough and carried a lot of speed towards the barriers and that's were I caught Ian. Problem was that I stuffed my bars right in behind his right foot and he hooked his leg dismounting his bike. Knowing that was a very UNsportsmanlike move, I yielded the barriers to him and let him cross without further challenge. Unfortunately, my gaff also let Bill get a few bike lengths on us that he promptly carried to the line. Make no mistakes, Bill would have had us anyway, but it took away the drama from the final moments of the race.

All in all I raced a good race and didn't hit the deck, so I consider that a personal victory. I came in 25th place which means I wasn't last. This week I'm planning to recover a little more as prep for the dual race weekend and the State Championships. I'm entered in the Masters 40+ class and am shooting for top 3 in my class. We'll see how that pans out.

Here are a few pics courtesy of Mike Dawson:

Me and Klages on the run-up (aka $1 alley)

Howells leading me into the slick downhiller. (Anyone else think this section was like trying to ride on a slip and slide?)