Crossasaurus Awesome

Dear Readers,

My name is Fatmarc Vanderbacon. I like to ride and race my bikes. I have a new puppy named Logan. Yes, that is a reference to Wolverine. I have two other dogs as well, Potter and Layla. Potter of course for Harry Potter and Layla for the Clapton song.

In cycling circles, when someone has a particularly good day they will often refer to it as " it felt like riding without a chain." As a cyclist, we hope for maybe 1-2 of these days a year.Truth is they happen less often than that for me. Maybe it's on a hard training ride where you get to lay the smack down on the local hometown hero. Maybe it's on a race day, and finally everything comes together. These are always great days. These days are very rare, and frankly all the hard days, all the times you pedal squares, push yourself until you get dropped, get pissed off pulling the group in the headwind, only to have them attack you once your are out of it, all the times you suffer up one more climb are all validated on these rare are wonderful days.

At Crossasaurus Awesome,  I had one of these days.

The narrative of my season has been chase to the group of guys I lovingly refer to as my group. The narrative has had me hang on back of the group, or get popped off the group and battle my way to the finish.

Today, I started in row 3 of 5, and by the end of the first lap found myself at the back of my group. I kinda knew how the story would end if I stayed on the end of my group. So I moved up. It stuck. The race was a 7 lap race, and with 3 to go, I thought to myself, "self, this is going really well. I feel good. really good, don't eff this up".

 I had by far my best ride of the year. I was stoked.

So look this race was called Crossasaurus Awesome, here are somethings that made it extra awesome, you know besides, feeling freaking rock star on the bike today:

• Monkey and Potter came for the race. Potter's first race in over a year. And yes, he has grown a lot in a couple of years. No, he hasn't eaten Logan
• Gorka? in the hammock on the run up hill, casually saying hello every lap as I came by, "hey fatmarc how are you? would you like a donut?" 
• Bob Joos in the pit giving me updates and cheers
• Nick battling at the front of the race,but cheering me on across the switch backs. 
• Our master class is just a good group of guys, my group specifically was cool. Trevor, Johan (birthday boy) Matt, Werner, and Greg (who chased me down going into one to go) all had kind words after my race. Community rules. Class acts all the way...
• The course is so fun, fast and hard corners, and the gorilla suit... it was awesome...
• Thanks to Bob P for hooking me up with a sweet parking spot too...

I am totally wearing my Crossasaurus awesome shirt to work today...

It was a good day... I'll remember this one for awhile

thanks for reading.

respect
vanderbacon