Twin Sizzler

Yesterday was the Twin Sizzler in downtown Medina. There was a lot of people already in the registration building and the bathrooms were already filling up, and we arrived early! We signed ourselves up and went back to the truck to sit on the tailgate and pin our numbers on. When we were all lining up, Shawn and Jeff asked me what race I was doing. I said "The 18 and under race". They told me to just race with the 19-34 group. I had no problem with that because I would get a better workout and it would be a better race anyways. When the gun went off, Dave Steiner and another Spin racer immediately attacked and gaped the group. No one really bothered to go with them because it was too early in the race. A couple miles later, Shawn and another Spin rider took off and no one went with that either. So three Spin racers were up ahead and Shawn who is a teammate. For the rest of the race, nobody did anything. There were very few attacks and jumps. About 3/4 through the race, three other Spin riders took off and I tried to go with them but for the whole race, I was doing a lot of work along with Brett (RGF); riding up front, going with attacks, etc. I also tried to be up front alot to pick up the pace. Shawn was already way up front so it didn't really matter to try and pick up the pace of the group. It was very frustrating because the team with the largest group of racers, didn't do anything when attacks went off, or when it was their time to pull. A lot of the times, some of them would stay up front and just ride tempo, which caused me to fill up with frustrated adrenaline and pick up the pace.

The group that started behind us were the 35 and over group. They started a few minutes behind us and the 35 and over group ended up catching our 34 and under group a couple of miles before the finish. Everyone who raced this race knows how the finish is. It is full of pot holes, deep road cracks, very tight finishing stretch. Before we hit the finishing stretch, I look over and see my Dad pulling off to the side into a driveway and I could see him looking down at his back wheel. At this point, I didn't really care if I finished or not. I slowed down and let the group pass me, then turned around to see if my Dad was OK. The back brake pad ended up loosening up and lodged into his back tire. Talk about bad luck. This is the second race he has done on his Super Six High Mod. The first race ended up into a grocery bag and this race, the brake pad causes his back wheel to lock up. He said he was feeling great too. "O well" he said, "Maybe it was meant to be". Jeff also was with us and us three ended up finishing together. After the race Dad, Shawn and I rode for another 15 miles and came back and had an iced coffee. Tuesday, I'm hitting up Westlake then resting for the rest of the week. Tour of the Valley starting on Thursday and I want to be in top shape for that.

Later