No es real bike race

Luck was not on my side today during the road race. Legs felt phenominal. I was ready to just power out in front of the field with Dave and Royal for the podium spot.

A pothole on the first lap sorted all those goals out though.

BAM! My frame shook harder than I've ever felt it. I could have sworn that my steer tube was going to crack, but unlike Hincappie, my Fuji did just fine. All I could think was "Shit--I lowered the pressure in my front tire today". Whatdya know, 1 minute later my front tire is flat. Sparky seemed to have the same problem, since he followed my wheel and had the same front flat. So we do the usual wait for the wheel car with our hands up....wait for the wheel car....waite for the wheel car (yes I blame you Matt Waite). Nothing.

3 minutes later, the guy shows up, we swap wheels, and try to have the car pace us back up to the field. Yeah, right. The guy speeds up and past us at 35 mph uphill. Thanks.

So I want to race. TT time! 30 minutes of sheer pain later, the gap is down to 1 minute in front of me, but I realize that even if I did catch the field, it wouldn't make a single difference. I'd be cooked and be able to do nothing in the race. So I sit up, enjoy the view, and do 10 hill sprints on the next 5 laps for the crowd. They loved it--and it was a great workout, too. Despite not racing, I still got in 50 miles with some seriously hard efforts.

MEANWHILE, Dave Hatch just rode away from the field and took the win! Amazingly strong rider that Dave is. Freaking awesome--and Fresh still won the field sprint for 5th!

And it's now offical--UW Madison is the MWCCC conference champs! First time EVER!