Four weekends into the season. My legs are feeling better than the first race where I plain old could not get out of my own way! At the first Great Dane race in Madison, Barney took the field single file on the crosswind section, putting everyone in the gutter and the legs were not working. Two laps in and off the back - how demoralizing! So TTed for about 15 minutes waiting for the pack to catch me (what is keeping them????) when I see barney coming strong to me on a solo venture. Crap! I dig down and pull Barney for ¾ of a lap and hope when he bids me fare-thee-well that the pack is a little ways behind. Nope! They are chasing Barney hard - or at the very least harder than what I had. No recovery for me and I am thru and then off the tiny pack faster than I could take two gasping breaths. Another 15 minutes of TTing but at least I did not get caught again.
Next few races, not sure what my legs have in store for me but all goes well. Even able to help do a little blocking when mates give it a go. And then we get to the Kettle Moraine road race. I am going with trepidation - last year it was ugly in all regards. 30+ minute line for registration. Racing with in a M3/4/5 field and everyone seems to be intent on keeping the pack together till the final corner. And then crashing when someone sprinting for 20th place caused a crash in front on me (here I am thinking I am trying to keep out of obvious trouble by hanging in the back. This year, the only thing better about the race is that the registration line is short. The finish is still 200 yards from the final corner. And once more the yellow line rule is being flagrantly ignored the whole way down to the final corner. In fact at a few points, there were riders from one shoulder of the road to another. With cars coming the other way - do these guys not have families and mortgages, brains, even? The amazing thing is that they were not going to the front - no, no one wanted to be in the wind! So I have a great view from the back when teammate Glen is slammed in another sprint for 20th place and his jersey ends up looking like it went thru a wood chipper - no, he did not look unscathed. Scary. And stupid.
But you wanna hear scary? And stupid? After a good crit in La Crosse, I am cooling down on my trainer watching the 4 / 5 race when the corner marshal totally does not see some fred roll onto the course just as the pack is starting into the corner. How the fred did not see the pack coming is another mystery. All of a sudden this guy is in the corner when screaming, cursing and the sounds of metal on metal ensues. It is a tribute to the handling skills of some of the riders that more did not go down. As it was, 4 or 5 were down. But not the fred! I am not sure if he got hit but sure enough those trying to avoid hitting this guy were slammed from the back. And then a few minutes later, it almost happens again as the marshal is distracted (watching the race which is still on???). At least this other cyclist saw the pack and stopped. Truly scary.
Now it is time to head to the La Crosse road race. Hope I have some climb!
Jim Merrifield
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