Burnin' in my pants

How many times in one weekend can you hear the term 'roadie' before you blow a gasket? I never liked the term. I always felt like it spoke to an inability I had to ride in other disciplines. After all I have ridden off road since 1990, cross since '91, and track since '98. From '90 to '98 I probably road as many or more mountain bike races a year than road, but I suppose that doesn't mean anything to the new blood that dominates the attendance these days. Maybe its me that has the problem and not those who see us as outsiders. Maybe I should think of it as a compliment when someone says not to bad for a 'roadie'. Maybe it is meant as a term of endearment? What ever the case may be, my team made it clear to me, we are 'roadies'. So thanks to all the 'mounties' that supported us this weekend, and we look forward to coming back next year.

On to the racing. Huge amount of respect goes out to DRJ, Gateway and CycleWorks for battling it out. The only thing I was able to beat you at was the Lemans start. After that it was an old school beating by a new school crowd. Obviously outclassed from the start we put our plan into motion. Make as few mistakes as possible, limit mechanicals, ride hard tempo just under threshold and hope things fall apart for those in front of us. With as many flats and mechanicals as those in front had, we were able to battle back in the middle only to loose complete contact shortly after. At the end of the day we managed a hard earned 4th place due to the removal of BVD and the Dickstroyers who had at least one magical lap that recorded a 26 mile lap with a 6 mile run, a broken frame, a phantom disappearing act, a 1:15 lap time, a mysterious ruling and a DQ of sorts.

After all was said and done, I guess I was proud that I managed to train approximately 10 hours offroad for the Burnin' and still be on a team in the top 3rd in our class. But, this 'roadie' is still tired from his efforts, and needs a nap.


Photo of Martel stolen from the DRJ website. You guys went a little too fast. If you could just slow it down a bit, we might be able to hang on next year.