Of all the people out there who read my blog (I’d like to think there are at least 3), it was Crusty (aka Jeff Corbett) who acknowledged that I hadn’t updated my blog in quite awhile so this one’s for him….now shut your mouth.
Since I’m going to post some photos from Memorial Day Weekend in Iowa, I figure that I best explain WHY I was in Iowa of all places. Eons ago when I started racing in Madison, WI, many people would pack up the cars to travel to Iowa for 3 days of racing in the Quad Cities area. I had participated in these races way back when I was just a young pup (in racing years anyway) and promptly got my legs torn off. So, I reckoned it was time to get back to test the waters again now that I had a little experience under my belt. Most well known of all the races is the famed Snake Alley, a knarly crit that has you muscle your bike up a cobbled, switch-back climb and then come bombing down a fast descent completely deprived of breath. The 2nd race on the docket is the Melon City crit in Muscatine (catching air over the speed bump is the best) and the last race is the Quad Cities crit in Rock Island, IL. While I have to admit the fanfare was less than I remembered, I guess that 8 or 9 years ago when I was there these races were “big time” to me, the weekend went well – 2nd at Snake Alley and 1st at both Melon City and Quad Cities. And best of all, my parents were there to witness my win in Quad Cities, a first for them and a rare experience for me anyway.
Just 2 days after returning home from Iowa, I was jet setting again to Tulsa, OK. Once again you might ask WHY but it was my choice to try something new this year rather than return to Montreal where the roads absolutely suck, the weather is usually miserable, you get yelled at by the Euros and the dorms get old. Besides, Tulsa Tough boasts a pretty damn big prize list. The twilight crit on Friday night was packed with spectators lined around the figure-8 course, and the nerves were escalating and the adrenaline rising by the minute along with the heat. However, 2 big crashes quickly brought the nerves up a notch – I was able to escape them both but the 2nd brought Kat down to the ground ending her race. I ended up finishing 7th that night and wanted to replay the last 2 corners SO bad but was happy nonetheless that I had stayed upright. Kat was able to walk away with minimal damage to herself, albeit more damage on top of already existing road rash, and her bike – thank you Jose!!!! Day 2 proved to be the day from hell for me. About 10 laps into the crit as we were driving fast along the straight away someone moved just enough to clip my front wheel and I hit the deck HARD with about 30 riders crashing all around and on top of me. I was the bottom of the pile. Now I had road rash on my left side to almost exactly match the scars that were starting to disappear from my last crash to my right side. But it was a heat stroke incident on the inside of corner one that caused the race to be neutralized for an ambulance to get onto the course. Apparently a rider from the previous race was having seizures and needed immediate attention. This bit of extra time allowed me to get my head together, get my bike checked out (thank you Paul from TT1) and for staff and officials to clean up the carnage before restarting the race. I was tail gunning the back of the race when I decided that if I was going to race I might as well get my ass up to the front. I managed that much but when it came down to the finish I shied away from the sprint and rolled in out of the chaos. Day 3 again proved to be a mental and physical challenge. It was a very hot and hard day. Temperatures shot up into the 90’s, my fresh road rash burned in the midday sun, and the hill hurt, a lot. The legs were actually ok but my head wasn’t so much. I was in the race but I wasn’t. I finished the damn thing but it wasn’t pretty. All in all, it was a good weekend regardless of the carnage. Katie was a great host, Tulsa proved to be more than I was ever expecting, and the races were well run and the courses were good. Kat and I both agree that going back with a full team would make the races that much more fun….and possibly we’d make more moolah.
Enough for now. More to come about Philly and NVGP later.
