No Longer the Bridesmaid

WAY back in Ought-Six, unforeseen circumstances forced Dr Mark and I to enter the Wicked Fast race at the Burning without a third teammate. A somewhat relaxed field allowed us to take the win in grand style doing 5 laps each.

For the next three years, DRJ (Chris, Wes, and Bob) have gotten together, and managed to snatch victory away from my various team combinations. There’s no better adversary than the trio above , but finishing first looser for three years straight (in ‘09 by less than a minute), had me reeling for a win.

Enter 2010 and yet another chance at victory. The dry spell was ended, and the monkey is off my back. We won, but took a two new course records, two flats, a broken pedal, and nearly destroyed wheel . Instead of a long diatribe of race re-capping, how about some observations from the weekend:

· Great care should be taken when choosing a team name. Choose wrong, and you could end up spending more time in your tent than just the weekend.

· The smoke bomb cloud to start the race was thicker than ever. I wasn’t sure I had my bike until chamois hit saddle.

· Beware of the opposing teams secret weapon (Mathews!)

· Also beware of nice old dudes (Albert), they will smoke you and get you a beer after

· No-one, and I mean NO-ONE ate better than we did Sat. night. Baked lasagna, Italian sausage, and ciabatta bread, wow!

· You don’t need fancy carbon, suspension, tubeless this or that, even rubber underwear to ride your bike all day and have fun. Go Pete!

· Pressed for time, I can stuff 6 Fig-Newtons down my gullet at once

· Post race PBR is nectar of the Gods

· Burning at the Bluff = still best race of the year!