Judging Self-Worth Through Insignifigant Cycling Achievements

I did the unthinkable and participated in an unsanctioned road race on Saturday! It was part of the grasshopper series, which is about 5 or so races that happen every year in Sonoma or here in Marin. They always draw the best competition available locally and have a good grassroots feel. Now when I say the best competition available locally I’m not talking about a couple of cat 2 racers and some pro mountain bikers, feast your eyes on this;

Yeah, that’s Levi holding one of the “lammies” with the course directions on it. Yes, he did win, easily I might say. His front group ended at three hours flat and the chase group that I was in was 10 minutes back. Now I am aware that if he wanted to he could have turned it on and shaved some serious time off of that but let me have my fun and say that I finished a road race 10 minutes behind Levi while he was in his peak. Even if it holds no water at all!

So anyways, this race was about 70 miles or so with about 6,000 feet of climbing, some of which was pretty steep. I treated it as a training ride and did A LOT of pulling and chasing down breakaways/ instigating breakaways and what not. What was kinda funny is that the “chase group” that I was in (which started with about 12 and ended with 5) was a bunch of pro/semi-pro mountain bikers and maybe one or two roadies. You should have seen us trying to do that weird “echelon” thing in the wind, it was priceless!

Another thing that had me working a little harder than I wanted to was a weird noise coming from the rear of my bike. I kept hearing it over bumps and was imagining that my rear wheel was moving around a bit. It was terriable on the way down the hills and I kept getting dropped and having to chase back on because I was pussy-footing the decents. When I got home later I checked the Orbea out and found a CRACK in the drive side chainstay just behind the bottom bracket!! Maybe I wasn’t imagining the rear wheel moving around after all!

Once it was all said and done I finished 13th (awesome number) which I was very happy with. Did I mention that Saturday was my 27th birthday? Can’t imagine a better way to spend a b-day that a free bike race followed with burritos and beers! Once again these races are awesome and free, so if you’re local I urge you to come out and battle! No matter what your skill level is there will be someone for you to race with and everyone is super friendly, hope to see you at the next one! Here’s the link;
www.grasshopperadventureseries.blogspot.com

And a picture of me on a road bike for those who just can’t picture it