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Written by Danny Zotter
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Tuesday, 04 September 2007 15:21 |
Only I can brake a seat on the third day of usage.
On Friday I received a new toy, a prototype saddle made entirely of carbon fiber. After riding it for two days I decided to race with it on Sunday. I headed down with Steve to the Niagara Square Crit in front of city hall Buffalo NY, also, known as Baghdad. What a minefield, I honestly though I was going to crack my frame, or at least damage it. Besides no-mans land the crit, also, featured a round about, which consisted of half the length of the course, and no finish straight. As a result, I was not thrilled, and to be honest I was looking to get into a breakaway, instead, of sitting in for the field sprint because here there would be no field sprint.
Racing with us were Mark Herman, Eric Larsson and Meigs street powerhouse Owen Wood; Owen and Eric race the earlier masters event so they were warmed up and fresh, kinda. All three made it clear that they would be working for me, and this was sweet because I knew if I got into a break with another of the strong teams (AG Edwards and Shickluna), then my teammates and theirs would be able to control the pace of the field. However, two wildcards existed, Steve and Pete Kocher, and I know from experience that Kocher is extremely strong. On the other hand, I never know what to do about Steve, sometimes he attacks, sometimes he sits in, and sometimes he gets stuck behind really slow riders and doesn’t realize he has been dropped.
The race started and the pace was high from the gun. Around lap four or five Kocher launched an attack, and a lap latter I decided to bridge up, but within three laps we were caught. Until the half way point I sat in and watching everyone, but all of the sudden an AG Edwards rider was up the rode and soon a teammate followed; latter I learned that a Shickluna rider bridge up. It was around this time that I begun to think I had a rear tire going down; I was terribly wrong, my seat was loosening. I entered the pits to tighten it back down (later I came to the realization that the rails had failed), and reentered the race. I started moving up with three to go and was in second places starting the last lap; I came home second in the field sprint and fifth overall, or until I was relegated a lap down for entering the pits without an expectable reason. Does anyone know a good florist; I better send Dieter some flowers after this performance.
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