race weekend recap, while I'm still conscious

Welp, I'm back from Austin...what a great trip. :) I mean, I got smoked in both races I participated in, and was rained on also. But I got to watch a couple excellent pro crits and hang with friends from our team. And then I woke up the next morning and did some bike jousting, keg walking, and mini-bike riding...and a whole lot of line-standing.

The crit was kind of scary. Very short course, very fast. I fell off the back pretty early, and rode my own race from lap 3 onward, pretty much....though there was a junior girl on my wheel for a lot of it. We were our own little peloton. :) About 15 minutes into our race, a thunderstorm started rolling in...and riders started hitting the pavement, particularly on the last turn coming into the start/finish. Four girls crashed right in front of me on one lap (the field had just lapped me, and I was desperately trying to stay on the back again...:P), but I'm such a candyass in the corners that I was going slow enough to avoid them safely. Shortly after that, mild rain transitioned to full-out downpour, and the road was littered with women and kids on every corner. I managed to avoid crashing myself (God bless that skills clinic last year, and my total lack of shame in taking a corner at 8 mph in a race), but was very, VERY glad when they called the race early. Every time I took that 4th corner, I had to think "don't brake, don't brake, don't you dare brake" while my wheels were sliding all over that slick pavement. Like I say, scary. But I did finish the race, which definitely means that I have achieved my first top 15 finish*. And if enough women dropped/crashed out, I may even be able to claim top 10! I didn't wait for results and they haven't posted them online yet, so I just don't know. Would be funny if I managed to get a prize for being dropped THAT badly. :) (UPDATE: 9th...holy crap! I got points and everything. Heh.)

The Urban Assault was a major disappointment this year, as the lines at the checkpoints were ASTRONOMICAL. Our on-bike time for this race was about an hour and 10 minutes, and it took us 4 1/2 hours to finish the race. Now, once we got to the actual EVENTS at the checkpoints, we were done with all of them within 5 minutes. However, we waited over half an hour at 4 of them (Pease Park wait was almost an hour), and nearly 10 minutes at another. So, that's over 2 HOURS standing in various lines, probably close to 3. Would have been longer, probably, but they shut down Jack & Adams before we got there, and so we bagged it and went back to the start, not bothering to go hit Pure Austin for the last mystery checkpoint either. After looking at the long line for the final obstacle at the finish, we gave up on that as well and just headed back to the hotels feeling pissy and out of sorts. Grr.

On the bright side, we did we hit 10 of 12 checkpoints, and actually figured out all the mystery checkpoints really quickly. The counter-clockwise route we took was really the best way to go...unfortunately, just about all of the 650 teams went that way right along with us, so once we hit one long line, we were screwed for the rest of the race. Sigh. I think if we do this again, we'll risk a longer route in order to shoot to the middle checkpoints first. That's where the congestion was the worst. But aside from the line trouble, it was fun, we did a LOT better than I did last year, and I'm totally going to finish this race one of these years. I don't think I'll be able to convince McSpeedy to do it with me again, though...he's not known for his patience, and all the lines had him near-apoplectic by the end. I don't think his comment survey to the race organizers is going to be very complimentary. :)

So that was my weekend. I liked the races I watched better than the ones I participated in, but the weather was gorgeous for all but that hour around the women/juniors open and I got to hang out in a cool city with family and friends. I kind of wish we had been able to stay longer...there were a couple things I wanted to do that I didn't, and I would have liked to spend more time with Rob and the boy.

Song: Slow Show (right-click, save-as)

In other news...

...there is a strong possibility that I will be buying (or making arrangements to buy) a new race bike tomorrow.

Yes, I KNOW. But here's the thing...a set of circumstances kind of fell into place this week, in which I have an opportunity to buy a very sweet bike at a very sweet price, and earn good-will points with my bike shop in the process. And I can then disassemble the Orca (already have an offer on the frameset, but it's a little lower than I wanted...I'm holding off to think about it), move the components over to the Salsa, and build two bikes for the price of one. Well, a very expensive one, but one nonetheless.

I'm getting fit for a test ride tomorrow after work, and if I like it on a short run, I'm going to TRY to convince the shop to let me take it home and try it out on the Tuesday training ride. I feel a little guilty even asking, but if I'm going to be spending more on a bike than I did on my first real car, I want to make sure it works as well or better than the one I've already got. All my sources say it's a fabulous racer, but if it's not a good fit or markedly less comfortable than the Orca, I'd just as soon dance with the one who brung me, you know? I mean, Keiko's not exactly a Wal-Mart special, either.

At any rate, I'm sure I will have more on that after the test ride...including exactly what it is I'm planning to buy. Gotta build the suspense, you know...;) (If you're really dying to know, follow either of those "bike" links up there for a spoiler.)

*there were 15 starters. :)