The End Is In Sight.

The last couple nights races have been a bit of a let down. Thursday night in Sheboygan, the race started out alright, I won a $25 prime in the beginning of the race, but about 20 laps in, it started to rain.

The rain lasted 15-20 laps, and then it started to dry up. The relief was only momentary as the skies soon opened up, and it started to rain with some fury. I made it 3 more laps, but realized quickly that the braking performance of my carbon wheels and cork pads was getting worse by the second. There was a downhill corner and I was grabbing 2 fistfuls of brake coming into it and picking up speed all the way through. After the 3rd time through, feeling the 2 wheels drift as I slid through the corner, I decided enough was enough.

Last night in Kenosha was a boring race. 100 laps around a 1km, rectangular, 4 corner course. The course was pancake flat, with a headwind along one of the longer stretches, and therefore a tailwind on the other long section. The race would bunch up into the headwind, curb to curb, string out through the two following corners, stay strung out down the tailwind section and through the next corners, and then bunch up through the headwind section again. Somehow a group snuck away and quickly put a lap into the field. I unfortunately was in the middle of the pack trying to figure out how to move up without just jamming my bike into small holes in the field like everyone else was doing. I seriously spent about 70 laps trying to figure out the best place to move up, and finally just went up alongside the group on the tailwind section. It felt like a really big waste of energy, but it was the only place I could gain positions.

The last 10 laps were just carnage with people taking dumb risks and stacking it up all the way around the course. I stayed out of the wreckage, but only managed a 51st place. WHOO HOO!

Tonight is the "Great Downer Avenue Bike Race" and I guess it's a pretty big deal. 12,000 spectators, rumors of a $4,000 prime, 200 riders. Should be fun. I thought people were taking stupid lines, and unnecessary risks last night, it frightens me to think about what tonight has in store. I'd love to try and get off the front, we'll see what happens. There are probably 199 other people thinking the same thing right now.

Thanks for checking.

Oh yeah, if you work in any sort of retail industry where you deal with customers on a regular basis, remember, most people don't like it when you talk to your fellow employees like the customers aren't even there. They must have the "B team" on a Panera today. A kid that was on break just sat in my regular seat and talked to the kids behind the counter and bragged about how long he was on break for the past 30 minutes. He complained about how his feet hurt, he didn't like his job, he was annoyed with how slow it was, etc. and the people behind the counter just talked right back like it was no big deal. Meanwhile, customers continued to line up waiting to get their orders taken. Good work guys, good work.