Well, Saturday's Race in Burlington, "The Snake Alley Criterium" turned out to be a real special event for me. After, spending countless hours thinking about this race in the previous weeks leading up, I ended up being out of contention in the very first minute.
Essentially, I arrived at the first 'snake' uphill climb towards the back of the group of over 60 riders, which put me at high risk of getting behind a crash...
Not my lucky day. Some guy ahead of me went down and I rode over him. This took me to the ground... But the snake doesn't stop there, my chain came off as well. I frantically worked to get my chain on, then had some help from the crowd to push me off, but my seat was off kilter. So I had to stop and fix that, then get another push. I was in dead last, by a good gap.
I heard somebody in the crowd say 'it's over'... yes they were absolutely right, if you don't get up and over snake alley in good position on the first pass, you are out of the race, because it doesn't wait up.
I gave it a shot at getting back in the race and passed many people. Thanks to Carson C., Scott Fett, and the countless others who still cheered me up the hill and kept me motivated to get in as many laps as possible before the refs pulled me.
Yeah, they pulled me after about my 8th lap. So, at least I didn't quit, but still a bitter pill to swallow. I will say that I am glad to have entered the race, because I won't be as sketchy next year (if I do it, not too excited about it right now). Also, it was truly a unique experience to climb up that alley, and see what everyone has been talking about. I also got a good rhythm on the corners, so great prep for rock island.
I live right behing Weed Park, in Muscatine, IA, so I am able to use my house as a warm-up/mechanic station for the Melon City Crit. Maybe I will do better... wait, it isn't possible to do any worse.
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