Jim Merrifield
It all started Friday night - got up to pee and tripped/slipped and slammed my left leg into the tub - mmmmmmffffff. I was surprised not to find bruising in the AM as my leg felt like it had been worked over with a hose. But I was pre-registered for the Hales Corners race and hoped some good riding would loosen it up. And the weather report was promising - looked like it would be dry thru most of the M3/4 race. Wrong on both counts. It stayed dry for the previous field but no sooner had they finished than it started to rain. I lined up with perhaps 20 others and hoped my clothing choices were OK. There was road spray right from the start and so I immediately moved towards the front to stay out of trouble as best I could. The first few times thru the bottom corner into the climb were "interesting" until folks realized that the traction was not so bad. What was bad was how I felt on the climb - I was not "floating" up the climbs in the least. Whether it was my left leg or just not a good day in general - who knows? But after a couple hard climbs in a row towards the end of the race, I fell off the back and a couple laps later, finished wet and cold. And that was the better of the two races last weekend!
Sunday was the Kettle Moraine Klassic and I preregistered for the M3/4 hoping that the 2 fields M4/5 and M3/4 would be separated - nope, as I was soon to find out. I arrived at the race over an hour till the start to find a LONG line for registration and being preregistered did not help the line situation. So I opted to get on the trainer, loosen up my legs and wait for the line to die down. And then still spent about 30 minutes in line. The course was rolling and the winds were slated to pick up and I hoped that this would winnow the field down but the course was just not enough and everyone was happy to chase and then sit. I thought I was in good position but got boxed in and found myself towards the windward side a few rows from the front as 60 or so folks paraded shoulder to yellow line towards the final corner. I had a feeling this would not end well. And sure enough 200 or so yards from the finish someone did something and there were bodies across the road. I looked for a clear path to no avail and could not stop in time to avoid hitting someone or something and going down - argh! At least I fell in the grass. There were no obvious injuries but as the shock wore off, I started to hurt in all sorts of places. No practice crit for me this Tuesday!
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