so state's has come and gone for another year, and if you have never gone you should really go (i am looking at all fgbc members - think of it, $35 gets you into the best cross party
in town, even better than cross 'tona).
cam, ian and i left early friday and got to minneapolis in time to stop at both one on one and hurl's c-r-c coffee bar. saturday started off with the stop at the sunny side up for breakfast. having learned from last year's fiasco of ordering huevos rancheros for breakfast (and also witnessing what biscuits, gravy and italian sausage did to the good dr.), i ordered the oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar. this proved to be a much more reasonable breakfast, with none of the after effects of 'oh crap, i think i am going to see my breakfast again' after 2 laps of the race. after breakfast we arrived at the course and quickly registered. cam and ian had the option of the 35 minute singlespeed category, or the 60 minute (cat 1&2)/35+ category, while i
had the options of the singlespeed or the 45 minute 45+ category. cam and ian chose the singlespeed and i chose the 45+ which meant that we would go off at different times (cam and ian were in the first "b" wave, and i was in the second). b1 was huge, starting 92 riders, while there were only 60 riders in my wave. if there is one thing you should experience in your biking life, it is the feeling of starting a race with 60-90 racers surrounding you as you leave the line - cool. cam and ian started a little back in the pack but managed to make their way through the ranks to finish 4th and 10th in the 
singlespeed category, an excellent result. having had enough of cam kicking my ass this season it was nice not having to race him in my category, of course i now had a mess of cat 3 and other 45+ guys to deal with that were going to kick my butt all over the place. the start of the race was good, but i found myself in the middle of the road which was not a good a place to be because of the crazy washboard that made up that part of the road. aft
er negotiating the start i quickly settled into my race. i received some good advice from ian and cam and avoided some of the pitfalls they experienced with the start of their race (cam found 
himself squeezed into the snow fence, and on top of the fence at one point when too many riders bottlenecked into one of the first corners). highlights of the race included cheers of "go winnipeg" by the kenwood boys, passing a cat 3 guy on the inside corner going into the corners while on the uphill climb, and taking a whiskey hand-up at the double barrier. it was a good race, where i did not get lapped by the leaders (a goal this year - which i met in most of my races). checking the results after the race it initially looked like i finished in 2nd place f
or the 45+ category which was very surprising - but this was latter dispelled when i checked the official results today; 11th in the 45+ which was not bad (not too confident about this as they had ian listed as sam hall, they missed jesse lalonde in the "a" category, and cam and ian thought that i was higher than this based on the guys that came in ahead of me - but official is official).
the "a" was complete nutty with more whiskey hand-ups, dollar primes on the ground and barriers, insane bunny-hopping of the double barriers, firecrackers thrown at the feet of the leader, great tunes all over the course, and a guy dressed up as death stalking all the riders. this and the 24 hours of nine mile really need to make it on to the calendar of future fgbc events, right up there with the annual spring ride.
in town, even better than cross 'tona).cam, ian and i left early friday and got to minneapolis in time to stop at both one on one and hurl's c-r-c coffee bar. saturday started off with the stop at the sunny side up for breakfast. having learned from last year's fiasco of ordering huevos rancheros for breakfast (and also witnessing what biscuits, gravy and italian sausage did to the good dr.), i ordered the oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar. this proved to be a much more reasonable breakfast, with none of the after effects of 'oh crap, i think i am going to see my breakfast again' after 2 laps of the race. after breakfast we arrived at the course and quickly registered. cam and ian had the option of the 35 minute singlespeed category, or the 60 minute (cat 1&2)/35+ category, while i
had the options of the singlespeed or the 45 minute 45+ category. cam and ian chose the singlespeed and i chose the 45+ which meant that we would go off at different times (cam and ian were in the first "b" wave, and i was in the second). b1 was huge, starting 92 riders, while there were only 60 riders in my wave. if there is one thing you should experience in your biking life, it is the feeling of starting a race with 60-90 racers surrounding you as you leave the line - cool. cam and ian started a little back in the pack but managed to make their way through the ranks to finish 4th and 10th in the 
singlespeed category, an excellent result. having had enough of cam kicking my ass this season it was nice not having to race him in my category, of course i now had a mess of cat 3 and other 45+ guys to deal with that were going to kick my butt all over the place. the start of the race was good, but i found myself in the middle of the road which was not a good a place to be because of the crazy washboard that made up that part of the road. aft
er negotiating the start i quickly settled into my race. i received some good advice from ian and cam and avoided some of the pitfalls they experienced with the start of their race (cam found 
himself squeezed into the snow fence, and on top of the fence at one point when too many riders bottlenecked into one of the first corners). highlights of the race included cheers of "go winnipeg" by the kenwood boys, passing a cat 3 guy on the inside corner going into the corners while on the uphill climb, and taking a whiskey hand-up at the double barrier. it was a good race, where i did not get lapped by the leaders (a goal this year - which i met in most of my races). checking the results after the race it initially looked like i finished in 2nd place f
or the 45+ category which was very surprising - but this was latter dispelled when i checked the official results today; 11th in the 45+ which was not bad (not too confident about this as they had ian listed as sam hall, they missed jesse lalonde in the "a" category, and cam and ian thought that i was higher than this based on the guys that came in ahead of me - but official is official).the "a" was complete nutty with more whiskey hand-ups, dollar primes on the ground and barriers, insane bunny-hopping of the double barriers, firecrackers thrown at the feet of the leader, great tunes all over the course, and a guy dressed up as death stalking all the riders. this and the 24 hours of nine mile really need to make it on to the calendar of future fgbc events, right up there with the annual spring ride.
more alberto photo's here.
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1 comment:
niiiiiiice. the whiskey shots alone have me wanting to go down next year.
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