Lenten Observances

Today's race was a failure, but a beautiful one. Lots went wrong. The bodge job of forcing spokes in that shouldn't have been there left me with a rear wheel that was pathetically out of true, and had a hop so bad it vibrated throughout the race. It scared numerous other riders. I was pretty cheesed off too; I'm sure it had at least some effect on my speed.

The Bradner Course was the land of rolling hills, though none were terribly steep. If you were motivated, you could do every climb in a big ring. I sat back for a while, learning the course and making sure my wheel wouldn't detonate. A two-up breakaway got off the front, and the pack did not press them. Eventually one of the dreaded WWU riders took off and tried to bridge, and I made a rather late decision to do the same.

The result was a glorious, stupid solo getaway attempt by me. Instead of instantly catching the WWU rider, I was out there forever trying to catch up to him. When I finally did, we worked together for a while before he dropped away. By then I was only 20 seconds from the breakaway pair, but then I was caught. Ouch.

The joy of that pure breakaway riding was wonderful. I think I'm going to like time-trialling.

The rest of the race was completely confusing. I got into a group of a couple of motivated EV riders and two unmotivated WWU riders, and after a lap or two, we had simply dropped the rest of the pack, but what I didn't realize is that a group of four other WWU riders had already taken off to chase the breakaway group. At the end, I thought I was gunning for second place; it was more like sixth or seventh.

So, in conclusion: massive suffering in a solo effort for nothing. Hard work in a group break for nothing. Endured a wretched wheel for nothing. Sprinted like crazy at the line for nothing. It was a great race, though, lots of fun!

Bike racing is like that.

In other news, the foundation for the shed is now in the backyard. This week: digging, foundationing, and then I nail together a floor.