Off road crit practice

This was week was round two of commuting to work. Another awesome ride home Thursday and sweet ride to work Friday morning. The ride home was pretty uneventful, which was good. I took a slightly different route home to avoid being on Clayton Road as long and also avoided a busy road near my house. The new route was a little longer, had more hills, but was much better with respect to vehicle traffic and my safety. The hills were close to my house. Good for the end of the ride. I can use some more hill practice anyway. Made it home and enjoyed a nice cold beer in the back yard while watching my daughter play in the yard.

Friday at 5 AM I rolled out of the driveway with blinky light, white blinking light and my night mountain bike riding light. I was immedately greated by hills. Thanks to some new stop signs at the bottom of the hills I pretty much had to stop at the bottom of every one. It could be argued that I don't need to stop at stop signs in a neighborhood at 5AM, but I prefer to play it safe.

Close to work I passed the government records center on Page. The sweet smell of fresh baked doughnuts could not be ignored there so I stopped at a bakery and gave the guy $0.70 for a fresh glazed doughnut. I told him I didn't need a bag I was eating it now. They guy laughed and told he was building up an old road frame someone gave him. He wished me luck on the rest of my commute and I was out the door. So it was great way to start the day, nice 30 miles and a fresh doughnut.

Tuesday I made it out for a another Tuesday Worlds. Maybe it is me but seems like there have been several crashes this year for no reason other than in attention. This week was no different. Going up the hill along the barriers two ICCC riders touched bars. Not sure who really was at fault but it involved larger and more senior rider and a junior rider. Well the larger rider ended up leaning into the junior after they bumped and being that he had 2x's the body mass of the junior it meant the kid went down. My teammate was riding behind the kid, and me behind my teammate. Needless to say the kid is laid out on the ground and my teammate runs into and over him and goes down. Next up my turn. At this point I have a couple of choices. Look the brakes and stop and pray no one hits me. Swerve left and take down a bunch of innocent folks. Swerve right and blast a metal barrier. I took a different approach which should not be tried by any true roadie and is better left to those with some off road ability. I ended up slowing down some and while the kid is laying on the ground I pull up the front wheel and roll right over his lower legs. Sort of like riding a log on a mountain bike. Pull up on the bars, then shift they weight around and pull of the rear as it hits the logs or in this case, the kids legs. Miracle of miracles it work. I made it over the kid and the proceed to ride between a gap the metal barriers so I don't have to ride over my teammate who had by this point tumbled over the kid and next in line for me to ride over. They guy behind me locked his brakes and did a sideways dirt slide. So in the end two guys went down and two more of us were involved but kiss the ground. I took a few laps to help the kid out and make sure everyone was okay. It was pretty cool to see several other folks all stop and offer help and make sure everyone is okay. Biking karma I guess. Eventually jumped back in and sat in the middle of the pack. Towards the end I jumped on Claw's wheel and got a decent tow towards the front and I was close enough to the front I felt compelled to make some attempt to sprint. I can't sprint really so I was more like a small surge.

Fitness is slowly coming back around. Tossing in some runs one or two times a week so I can be prepared for cross season.