Semi-Pro

Monday AM was the Stan Crane race, and I decided to move up and race with the Pros. If you asked me before about May of this year, I'd have said, "No. Never. Too old, too many kids, too much work, too slow." So much for excuses.

I was pretty stressed from work and feeling down Sunday and Monday before the start. I can't say as I was particularly looking forward to the race, but at times like that I just have to turn on the auto-pilot. Somehow the exhaustion of a race usually switches the lights back on.

Ian and Scott both raced. I rode behind Ian to guide him around, but he didn't need anything more than navigational help. Scott rode a great race and finished better than ever. He was really excited about it. It was gratifying to see the kids have so much fun.

Our race started fast. My only unusual problem was the brake balance was really off, so I kept blundering the corners and actually crashed twice in the first lap - my worst two crashes of the year. I had a few other mess-ups in descending as well, but Bp got in the way and kept me from riding off the end of the sharpest switchback in the course on lap 2 :)

The coolest thing about racing pro was half way through the race when we had five guys wheel-to-wheel racing each other. I was almost always within sight of at least two competitors -- real racing.

Reed was there too, and raced an excellent 2nd place, although I didn't see much of him.

OK, as expected I didn't win, but I finished 5th, and I'm really happy about that. It is great to have a finish where I can say, 5th without asterisks, parenthesis, or caveats. Just 5th.