I am back home sipping on a beer and noshing on some potato chips, my side hurts and I am the happiest guy in Michigan. I was racing again today.
My new Trek Superfly put 25 year old legs under me (those are younger legs for me, for those of you who are in your 20s), I was pushing the limits, had more power, and was low and flowing in the turns. It was great, I was racing the sport class 50 to 59 Custer Stampede and I knew where the leaders were, was nagging at the guy in front of me and was pretty sure we were about 5th place. After the start, there were some guys who needed to be passed and were done so unceremoniously (felt kind of bad for the guys getting yelled at, but the front 5 were hitting it pretty hard). We gapped the rest of the group by the time we hit the camel backs and needed to get around some less experienced racers who were doing a good job making their way around at a slower pace.
By the time we were in Granny’s Garden, the slower riders were standing on the hills and letting us by (probably educated by the groups in front of us) but the guy in front of me had been gapped enough that I could no longer see the leaders in front of him. Seriously, this hard tail did everything I asked it to and had no problem climbing, turning, weaving—just a great bike (and made up for engine issues!).
As we made our way around the lake, a guy (who was not racing) stopped in the middle of a climb and caused me to stop and start to walk around the turn (where the monument is at the top of the hill). At that point, my buddy Neil Sharphorn came by and I pushed his 70-plus year old back side so he could stay ahead of the other guys behind him (pretty sure that would not qualify as an illegal assist if he is a god!)
We were working our way around the pines and I noticed that my front brake was a lot more sensitive than my back brake and figured I would have Skittles take a look at it when we got back to Team Active. It turned out that it was not the front break that was too sensitive, it was that the back brake was losing pressure. I attacked the guy in front of me on a downhill and when we reached the bottom and started to turn, all I had was front brake and I did an end-o. Knocked the wind out of me and hurt my ribs badly enough that I could not take deep breaths on the ascents.
Screw-it, I knew I could still climb and hit the flats hard, I would just have to take the downhills easy since my back brake hydraulics were completely disconnected. I got passed by EVERYONE. As it turned out, I got 14/23 and was happy to be racing again. Mike (our new team EMT) said ‘cowboy up and grow a pair’! Actually he did not, but he told me I only had bruised ribs if anything at all.
GREAT frigging day on the course.
Jack Miner, WSI Team Active RACER.