What had hoped to be some good prep prior to this weekend of races ended up backfiring. I thrashed my legs out at the TNW's doing both the A and B races and then was going to rest up for Sedalia. Well, all went well until Friday, when I brought my husky, Skates, to my parents house while I rewired my dads 55 Chevy pickup truck. Well, just like any husky, they love to get away and are escape artists. My mom put him on his leash and tied him in the garage. I then hear a noise and look over and see his little tail running off. I end up having to chase him down at a full sprint, then stopping, then sprinting again. I finally chased him down to a lake which he decided to have a little fun in. I saw it as an opportunity to grab him so I jumped in after him. I was able to grab him and I ended up putting him around the back of my head and carried him home. After a shower I started to work on the truck again. An hour later I hear the phrase, "skates got away again". I dropped what I was doing and chased him down again and this time had a little help from my niece and nephew. Not a fun time, and definetly not pleased to be running before the weekend.
Saturday rolls around and Brian picks me up for our trip to Sedalia. We have Denny, Brian, myself, and Ron, who I didn't think would be there in Saturdays race. It's a six turn course much like Soulard. The roads were rough and had a lot of potholes, but once we raced it didn't seem like it made much of a difference, it was everybody else that made the difference. The race was full throttle from the start. Plenty of accelerations which could be expected for this kind of course. My legs felt ok considering the day before. Denny took some massive pulls at the front for a while until he went down by himself going too hot into a corner. Thankfully he didn't take anybody out. Nice strawberry on his hip and ruined bibs. He was able to get back in the race. I then decided to attack and got a pretty good gap. another guy joined me for a lap and then I was on my own for another. I burned out and integrated back in the pack. a couple laps later a guy goes down in the middle of the straightaway, apparently he broke his chain while trying to go out on attack from the field. He took out my teammate Ron, who snapped his stem right in half. I was a couple bikelengths behind and a guy fell in front of me. I rode over his tire like it was a little ramp and jumped over it. I thought I had gotten a flat so I went to the wheelpit for a tire change. Apparently Brian also was involved and had to bunnyhop the sidewalk to avoid it. He didn't make it and ended up over his bars. At about five to go I Denny took his brother to the front for two laps. I decided it was better to let me lead and save Denny to bring Brian to the finish so I overtook Denny and told him to get my wheel. I guess I went to fast and he lost my wheel. Brian was able to hold my wheel and I was able to go hard for another two laps, but I started to tire and I was back in the pack until one to go. I then go into turn one and some guy on the inside trying to divebomb the turn crashed and took us all out. I had nowhere to go and went over the bars at about 25mph. I ended up being tangled up in a bike and needed help out of it. I had blood all over my arm and my race was done. Brian and Denny both finished with Brian taking fifth. I ended up in the emergency room with stitches in my elbow.
Sundays race wasn't much better for us. Ron ended up with a flat early on the second lap. I fought to keep cramps at bay the whole second lap and Jeff got in an ill-fated break. I almost went down again when there was a big pile-up of guys going up one of the short steep climbs. It looked like someone dropped a chain and came to a complete stop. I saw one guy go over the handlebars which was seemed kind of hard to do on that grade, but he did. As I took to the outside and thought I was around it it felt like someone just grabbed onto my back wheel and tried to pull me down. Well, I got around and was back into the group. I didn't get to the front in time and before I knew it the second to last turn up the hill was already in sight. Here's where it gets scary. As we made the right turn up the little climb I see out of the corner of my eye, actually, I got full view of Brian going wide and smacking a moving car at full speed. I saw him do a superman through the air, but saw him move after landing. Denny, was right in front and yelled "that was your brother". We ended up both riding up to the finish and then made our way back. He was shaken up but he was alright all things considered. His bike was totalled, but all he had was a bruised knee. He was also my ride home. I offered to drive, but he insisted on driving himself. I'd normally say hockey players are tough, but he was pretty tough after hitting a car and walking away from it. I ended up finishing 19th. I wasn't in good position to make a good run to the finsih, but I was happy with the race overall.
This certainly was not one of the better weekends for Dogfish. One totaled bike, one broken stem, a dent in my top tube, four stitches, flatting out of a race, a bruised knee, and a skinned up ass pretty much sums up our weekend.
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