Dan's Wagga Race 15/7/07

The corner in question was a 90 degree right hander on an open grass section. The morning was misty and visibility was poor. We had arrived at the summit of the previously mentioned CAT 1 Climb on the first lap. It was a mad sprint to reach this point and I felt my legs were going to explode. Next was a techy downhill rollercoaster. There were 3 of us out the front, a Roadie (for the rest of this article I will refer to him as Mr X), Hamo and Dan. I had observed on the climb that although Mr X looked as strong as an ox, his skills were questionable. I knew we were close to turning so my plan consisted of a quick sprint up the right hand side, take the lead, and ditch Mr X (And hopefully Hamo stuck behind Mr X) on the descent. Problem was the corner was a little sooner than expected!!! My vision of the sign was obscured as I was sprinting up the right side with my head down and the sign was on the left. Anyways before I know it Mr X and his steed were directly in front of me and closing fast, I then slammed on the brakes (Obviously a bit too much front) and somehow managed a centimetre perfect flight path between Mr X and Hamo, with my bike landing on top of me. DOH!!! I jumped up thinking that I had broken my fall beautifully and not injured myself, only to find my left knee failed to support my weight. DOH!!, DOH!! I proceeded to ride timidly with one leg down the generally awesome descent, watching riders fly past. Around 1/3 of the way down I was shocked to come across Mr X sprawled across the track. Hamo and Footy Shorts Boy had stopped to see if he was O.K. which he seemed to be. Just a bit dazed and confused. Apparently Mr X spear tackled a tree in similar fashion to the way I had spear tackled the dirt.... I think the dirt was a safer option. After stopping to make sure he was O.K. I gingerly progressed down the hill. I thought of Le Tour rider Vinokourov having countless stitches in his knees and half his A&*% missing and still riding the tour. He had to do 6 hours a day up the steepest road on the planet every day for 3 weeks and all I had to do was a bit over an hour up and down a little hill. Get on with it Dan and stop whinging.

Thankfully strength was slowly returning to my leg and by the time I passed the start finish line my thoughts had turned from pulling out to soldiering on and having some fun. Soon I felt like Popeye after he had eaten some spinach and my mission had changed from survival to catching my nemesis Footy Shorts Boy. This unfortunately never eventuated but I did feel pretty strong for most of the laps, reeling in riders every now and then and eventually finishing a respectable 3rd behind nemesis no2 Geoff Hale.

Anyways, my nemesis no1 "Footy Shorts Boy" stitched me up by a couple of minutes..... Again..... making the score 2/1 in his favour. Next time Footy Shorts Boy!!!!!..... Best 3 out of 5 .

Moral of the story - Patience is a virtue, and never underestimate a rider disguised as a Muppet in footy shorts.

Cheers

Dan