Podium Shot-

Single speed went off and up the first long climb we were packed tightly. We had agreed to pace ourselves up opening mile climb until we hit the steep section of the road. We rang our bells and smiled for the crowd. Race fans love single speeders, and they love bells. Wes the Conqueror picked up the pace right at the steep pitch and got away pretty cleanly. As I mentioned the course had a lot of off the bike running, and back on sections. You might remember that Wes the Conqueror is pretty good at that kinda stuff. Better than the average bear you might say. He rolled to the win. Wes brought along his cool girl friend Alyssa today. I hadn't seen her since cross season. She is very nice. I missed seeing her mother. I busted on Wes a little, "great bring the girlfriend to a point to point race, see yeah babe, have fun the next 2 hours while I'm gone. Why not wax the truck while you're waiting huh? " Not a whole lot to see in a single lap race, know what I mean ?

Peterman is a Wooden Wheels haunch. He is super nice, super strong, and local to the Tour de Tykes area. He pushes a big gear. I knew at the beginning he would have the home field advantage and as such would be even more dangerous than he usually is. (point here is I have a lot of respect for the guy, even more so on his own turf...) So when he came around me on the first climb I was cool with letting him share some of his local knowledge with me. We went back and forth through the first half of the lap. On the bike I felt like I could hold more momentum than he was. Must be the Spot Brand 29er. However he was killing himself and consequently me on the run ups. Tough guy. Good guy. On the last loop of the course, Twice I thought for sure we had to be finishing up so I put in good strong finishing efforts, only to realize and much to my horror, we weren't done. Only by my pure stupidity was I able to open up a small gap on Peterman, and slip away with a second place ride today. I almost blew it on top of one of the run ups, as I jumped cyclocross style back on my bike, slipped off my pedal and jammed the nose of my seat into my ass. It hurt so bad I was sure I torn myself a second a-hole. I had to stop for 10 seconds to keep myself from vomiting. Once I got some blood flow back in my face, I got rolling again a couple of minutes later the pain subsided. I was really expecting to see blood in my shorts after the race, and was stoked that I didn't.