Friday, August 11, 2006

Back On Track

Yeah, I’m a little late with this one, been busy workin’, ridin’ eatin’, sleepin, also made a trip down to Arkansas for my Grandmother’s funeral. What a drag man, she was a really cool lady. She’d been fightin’ the good fight against Alzheimer’s disease for the past five years or so and it finally got the best of her. It was a sad day indeed… she’ll be missed by a lot of people.
So let’s see, I did a race a couple of weeks ago, in Ft. Dodge, IMBCS #7. The course was dry as a bone and I was feeling pretty good, coming off a rest week. So I arrived at the course, it was like 90,000 degrees out, freakin’ hot! I got signed up and did a little bs’n before I went out for a couple of recon laps. Loomis Park is a pretty short course, something like 1.9 miles per lap. I did three or four recon laps and got the course dialed in pretty good. Rode the Orbea and it felt really good to finally ride it again.
We lined up for the start and the gun went off. Nathan Cline with a C took off like a scalded dog and I jumped on his wheel. I kinda wanted to lead going into to the singletrack, so just before we hit it, I jumped into the lead. I pretty much dropped the hammer for the first couple of laps (I think we did 11 total). Nathan stayed with me for a couple of laps and he eventually fell off the pace. Guess he said he had some tire issues.
Once I had a pretty good lead established, I backed off the pace a little and just tried to maintain the lead.
With about three or four laps to go, I took a swig of water and went to put my bottle back in the cage. I got it back in but the damn thing nearly fell out of the bottom side of the cage. I had one hand off the handle bar trying to put my bottle back in place, when wam! I hit a big ole’ bump in this open grassy park section and my faithful(?) stead bucked me over the bars, right in front of a bunch of people. I picked myself off the ground, jumped back on the bike and continued on for the win. I ended up winning by about 5 ½ minutes over Frankenbike, who was followed closely by Nathan. Nice job fellas.
After the race, I took a quick gander at my stead and noticed that I put a small dent in the top tube and I also have a slight bend in my rear brake lever. Oh well, crap happens. She still works just fine, so it’s all good.
So here is a couple of quick product reviews. The Specialized Rib Cage water bottle cage… Piece of crap, do not buy this unless you want to crash like I did. Recover-Ease. This is good stuff. You’ve probably read about this stuff on Kerkove’s blog. He gives this stuff a lot of hype and it deserves every bit of it. I started taking Recover-Ease a few months ago and have noticed a very significant difference in how quickly I recover from ride to the next. Definitely one of the best supplements that I’ve ever taken.
Lastly, after several conversations with the Iowa Games MTB race commissioner, Pat Alvord, we’re happy to announce that the Iowa Games MTB race has been rescheduled for Saturday, October 7. And for all of you IMBCS junkies, this will also be an IMBCS points race. So we will still have ten races in the series, despite Sugarbottom being cancelled.
Oh yeah, one more thing, I did the All Nine Yards Omnium race last night at Waterworks park. Got one hell of a workout in. I really hope they do these races again next season. Had a great time hangin’ out with all of the roadies. I think Bisonova has turned to the dark side. He’s doin’ pretty good with this roadie stuff… freakin’ traitor!
So I think my next race is on August 19 over in Omahole. The Psycowpath series season finale/state championship at Swanson Park. I think that I can finish anywhere in the top five or so and I’ll win the series… Saweet! One big goal down, two to go. Those being winning the IMBCS and also takin’ the win at the last Psycowpath marathon at Indian Cave State Park on September 23.
So I guess that’s about it for now. Thanks for reading,

Cosmo