Hello all you bloggers out there. Seems like lots of stuff has happened since my last post, so I will get right into it....so I am sorry if this ends up being a lengthy post. :)
We went over to Brooks and Mary's house for Halloween.
Dressed up Sampson and watched
Clockwork Orange. Good times. On Saturday, Heather and I relaxed and did not do much of anything at all. It felt good to just chill out. The relaxation was needed, because Sunday was a
very busy day.
It started out by heading to Milwaukee for the Estabrook Park CX race. Heather told me as we were driving there that her season was over. She just wanted to relax and not spend the money on racing anymore this year. I understand what she's saying there. :) This was a cool course; I really liked it. Some pavement sections, fun chicanes, and a nice little mtb singletrack section. Brooks and I once again got front row positions, but as he said in his
race recap, neither of us got off to good starts and we ended up actually rubbing shoulders when everyone pinched in. Regardless, we were both in the front group of 10 that lead for the first lap or so. I had decided before the race to take it easy for the first few laps so as not to blow up like in the last race, so when a group of 4 (Brooks, Sachs, Masterson, and Haley) got off the front, I didn't chase them down. I instead got in a 5 man "chase" group. We were going at a decent pace for another 2 laps, when to my surprise, we caught back up to the leading 4 riders. I was just taking it easy at the back of this group when one of the riders picked up the pace at the front, and a guy in the middle let a gap develop to those same 4 riders. I didn't want to blow myself up chasing, so I just hung with 2 other riders for a few laps. I ended up getting dropped by those 2, and rode in no-man's land by myself for a couple laps, eventually being caught by another rider right before the last lap started. What was crazy to me was how small the time gaps were. Each lap around, I could see the leading 4 in the chicanes less than a minute up on me. During the last lap, the rider that had caught me kept accelerating, trying to drop me, but I would catch back onto his wheel. Then, as we entered the last set of barriers, we could see Masterson (from the leading group) running his bike along the course. I yelled out to the guy I was with that we should pick up the pace and catch him. As we went through the last chicanes and entered a grass section right before the finish, he was running right in front of us. We were catching up to him quickly as we turned into the final straight for the finish. I launched my sprint, going around the other rider and just missed out on catching Masterson by 5 feet. Ended up getting 7th. If I could do it over again, I would have attacked on the grass section instead of waiting until the final straight, as then I am sure that I would have passed Masterson as well. Oh well, I guess. I found out after crossing the line that the reason why he was running was because of the carnage from the crash on the last lap. His bike was toast...he'll need a new rear derailleur, right Campy shifter, der hanger...that was an expensive race for him. Brooks ended up 3rd, but unfortunately Sachs boy won and took over the lead in the series. Good thing there are still 2 races left to right that ship. I'm happy with my performance, my legs and lungs felt much better than last week. Hopefully I can do well in the final races to move up some more spots in the points series.
Here is a picture of the Milwaukee River, which ran through the park where our race was held. There were hazard signs posted about eating the fish from the river. Must be clean!
Look at me, flying through the singletrack! This was the fun part, right after a loose, steep run-up section and before a fun little descent.
Brooks leading out Team Brown Bear arch-rival, Sachs boy, around some corners.
After getting back home, Heather and I met up with a home buyer's agent at a house for sale in east Madison that Heather had found online. The house had an awesome, big yard, but that was about the only thing nice about it. Really weird floor plan, crappy garage, and random walls all over the place. It feels weird to be looking at houses. But it's going to be great finally getting a house! We should be looking at more properties in the coming weeks...
Right after looking at the house, we headed over to the Sun Prairie hockey rink for my league game. We played Team White, but I was confused, because I didn't see Pat out on the ice. This was the first time that Heather had ever seen me play hockey. I played ok, but not as good as last week I thought. My passing was off all night, and I missed 2 chances right in front on golden opportunities for goals. Thankfully, I got the chance to redeem myself, as the game ended in a 3-3 tie, so we went into a 3-man shootout for the win and I was one of the guys chosen by our "coach" to shoot. I skated in on the goalie, faked a deke, then shot it upper corner for a goal. Luckily, our goalie shut out Team White's 3 shooters on their chances, so my goal was the only goal scored in the shootout, and ended up being the game winner.
Here is a picture of me in action, skating around what might be the skinniest ref in the world.
This upcoming weekend will be great fun, as Tonia and Trent are coming to visit us here in lovely Sun Prairie. Word on the street is that Tonia plans on unveiling her design ideas for next year's Team Brown Bear jerseys. How exciting.
In other news, a big congratulations goes out to Nathan "Mijo" Vasquez, as he got offered a position at BTI, a bicycle parts distributer, in Sante Fe, New Mexico. Nice job Nathan!! Yet another SBS employee getting a job in the bike industry. Terry, Monty, and Pat must put something in the water Mt Dew there. I am excited for Nathan on his big move out to NM, but I must admit that it will be sad to go back to GF now and not be able to go out with him to the Hub anymore. :(
The poor little puppies couldn't take all the excitement and had to take a little nap.
