Guns, Knives, Yard Animals, and the Liberty Crit

this is split ear. He's a rabbit that has lived in our yard for years. We call him split hear, well because his one ear is split, and has been for years. We are proud to have this animal in our front yard.

now this guy, this guy makes our split ear look a little weak. time to step you game up buddy. We have a rabbit in our front yard this guy well he has these:

Totally Rad.

I'm not one to bring a knife to a gun fight, and generally don't ride the cross bike on the single track too often. The white clay trail system however is so vanilla, that it does offer an amazing opportunity to learn to handle and corner a new cross bike. Saturday, I decided I'd roll with it. Kid Chris, Buddy the Leg Breaker and I met at the base of Redd Park and headed over to White Clay. Buddy set a very honest pace on the accents, and was kind enough on the descents to stay in visual contact with us. Buddy was rocking his mountainbike.  As I said previously, I don't really dig the cross bike on the single track so much. But today, today was different, the bike felt marvelous, and it just rolled. We were climbing our way out of what used to be middle run and into white clay proper when I thought to myself, "I feel pretty good, this is really freaking fun"  Then as if a karmatic reminder to not take a knife to gun fight, my chain, a year old and due for replacement, blew up... the quick change in tension caused the derailleur to shoot into my spokes and rip off my hanger. GAME OVER.

heart breaking

Buddy waited with me, and Kid Chris went to get a car to take my now impotent cross bike home. I guess I'll be putting on a new chain sooner than I thought...

Sunday Monkey and I headed out to Great Valley in Malvern for the Liberty Crit put on by Philadelphia Ciclismo. This was monkey's first crit, or mass start road race ever, so we were both a little nervous. I told her that she had done the Thursday Night Training Crit, that this wouldn't be harder than that...

Stacy and Diane talk strategy

Monk has a nose for the front, she's known (much like myself) for going out too hard and cracking herself. She did a great job today. Stayed in the group, kept her nose out of the wind. She went REALLY early in the sprint, which didn't work out so great, but but she had fun and learned a ton. Finished with the field I'm really proud.

Up next was my race. Cat 3's 60 or so of us. The course doesn't have any super deciding features, so I figured since I was looking for a training race, and with 60 guys all with in 5% of each other in fitness, and to my knowledge no one on EPO, everything would stay together. So for the first 10 laps or so I hung in the pack chilling. I started to move up and stay closer to the front with 15 to go. I was working hard and pretty happy with how things were going. With 7 to go I wanted to show off for my lady a little bit so I took a flyer as we went through the start finish. I was caught as we came to the back half of the lap, but it was fun. Monkey would later ask me why I didn't go on the move with Glenn and Hardy (my teammates in the race). In protest I would say, "baby, I was showing off for you!" Ugh.

The last three laps were super argy-bargy. Lots of people bumping and breaking the no profanity rule. I had decided to not contest the sprint and call it a good day. Then who should come around me but Rob from Morgan Stanley, and damn if he isn't a great wheel. We rolled into the bottom of the course and started to head into the final corner for the sprint, when a "hockey fight broke out in a bike race" (stolen from Richard Fries) as guys started crashing and screaming profanity, and that horrible sound of carbon breaking was being seared into my mind.  I narrowly escaped and rolled into the finish feeling okay with that result.

Luckily no one was hurt in then crash, as when Adam, Kelly and I rode around for another lap, everyone had worked their way back to the finish. I understand in the women's 123 race their was a really gnarly crash, and folks didn't get away so easily. Heal quickly folks, heal quickly...

So all in all, a pretty fun weekend. Just finished up the first half of our group project for school. Got 2 weeks, 3 exams, 1 group quiz, and a final group project to go. I'll be very pleased when this class is wrapped up.

thanks for reading... I gotta get started on my yard T-Rex.

respect
vanderbacon