Naysayers

Saturday, 26 July

For all you naysayers who think a tandem crit is just too far outside the realm of bicycle racing possibility, here's proof that they do happen. See, everybody lines up just like at any other crit. They don't call GC leaders forward at this stage race, though. Might be too hard to get a tandem and two riders through the pack up to the front?

And then they're off, and they go around corners like at any other crit. These pictures are the B crit here at the Co-Motion stage race. In the A crit, which I saw from the inside and thus no pictures, we had a few moments of excitement. "The big guys" (two Canadian men; the stoker is blind--they're the only team of two males who aren't father/son) clipped a pedal in turn 1 early in the race, and that sort of put a damper on everyone's tight cornering habits for a while. Maybe 15 laps into the race, the big guys launched an attack, and the stellar sprinter team of Gann/Gann (father/son) from Medford or Ashland or somewhere else Down South) jumped to go after them--and snapped their chain. The captain's foot went flying off his pedal, and the chain was looping around into space, but they kept the bike up. We saw Gann junior fishing part of the chain out of a tree later during the race. And then about 75 meters from the finish line, the big guys blew a tire. Nobody could tell who had flatted and there was just that briefest hesitation which put a might big hiccup in the sprint.

So, although I had a few laps of hating life early in the 35-lap (!!) crit, I survived. The TT this morning was much more fun. No one agrees on how long it is. I think it's advertised as 10K, but the mile markers along the way indicate it's about 7 miles. Our time was 3 seconds faster this year, and the only team that beat us was the big guys.

Tomorrow is the road race. No Wolf Creek climb (or descent!) this year due to road construction, so we do two laps of "the Thursday nighter." A couple of sorta hills per lap, and a 1K climb to the King Estate winery at the finish.