Dang. Who put that tree there?

There was a race on Sunday.  It is a good race.  It is actually one of my favorite races.  Dyracuse.  Wisconsin Rapids.  8-9 miles of beautiful flowing singletrack.  It can be sandy, but today it was perfect.   It had rained a bit during the week, so the sand had a bunch of moisture in it.  It was pretty much hero dirt.  Wow.

Yep. It pretty much looked like that. It rocked, in other words.

When you talk about perfect dirt in the dictionary, it pretty much notes that on Oct 2, 2011.  Dyracuse had perfect dirt.  I think it is actually in the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy.  (Let it be known that the people who wrote the guide, were the first people up against the wall when the revolution came.)

Scott broke his scapula.  Not his spatula, but his scapula.  It is the big flat blade in your back.  Ya, I know.  How the hell do you break that?   Not sure I can even tell you.  But, it has resulted in me getting the last races of the year by myself.  Oh well, at least I do not have to ever turn off Pearl Jam radio.

He broke it on his mountain bike.  Even though, it seems that we should be getting hurt on Motorcycles, it is just not true.  We get hurt way more on our bicycles.  I have a theory about all of that.  Goes something like this.  “The Brontosaurus is skinny at the head, much much larger in the middle and skinny again at the foray.”  Really what I am saying is that when you are on your motorcycle, you are wearing all kinds of protective gear and you know it is dangerous, so you pay attention.  At some point on a mountain bike, we all say “whatever, it is just a mountain bike…”  that is when it gets you.  Happened to me at Whistler last year, happened to Scott this year.

Any way, I had a stupid race on Sunday.  Not stupid because the race was stupid, but rather because I am an idiot.  I finally felt that I could run with John.  It is my course at Dyracuse, and it is the kind of riding I like.  Fast and flowing.  The dirt was perfect, as the photo above shows, and I felt good.  When you look at the video, you will see that I had all kinds of pace.

Take a look at the video below.

1.  I got a crap start.  I mean, 3 kicks on the stabber.  Geez.  WTH?  I even look over at Ben on the side line and shake my head as I leave the line.

Notice that everyone is leaving the line, and I appear to be... who the hell knows!

And everyone is gone...I'm still kicking. Geez. Looser.

2.  Then, I catch John and Karl and then promptly smack a tree hard.  Broke my visor off my helmet and as I was getting going, I saw my helmet cam on the ground.  Lucky I saw it.  I picked it up and then stuffed it in my pants.  So, you get a peep show while I am riding.  Seriously, that is my junk on film.  (Ha ha, made you look at the film.)  About 5 minutes in, you will see me smack a tree hard.  I ended up having to stop about a lap later to give the camera to someone, because I kept sitting on it.

So, a lap or so later I stopped at the start finish.  Jorge was there

Me. “Hey Jorge.  Come here.”  (Me reaching into my pants)

Jorge. “What’s up?”

Me. “My Camera.  I broke it, it is in my pants.”

Jorge. “I’m not sticking my hand in there.”

Absolutely classic.  I need to get some smarts.

Out  –  Joe

random shot

At least I kinda know how to ride