bg: sherwood hills Icup

Possibly the best race course of the Icup. World Cup style course with multiple ups and downs per lap and real flowing 1 track. None of this norba style 30 min fire road boring climb and 20 switch back descents. It seemed the heat scared a few people away, to bad they missed some good racing.

In general I had a good race but was unable to seal the deal. I gassed it after the start loop to get out of the dust and Alex and I got off the front. We rolled for a couple laps and I was feeling pretty good so on the 3rd lap I kept the pace up and found myself building a little lead. By the 4th lap I was fairly confident I was going to pull off a win, but this is racing and things happen. A slow leak turned into a flat I found a small slice in the top of the tire that I thought would seal, it did not and I was forced to pull it apart and put a tube in which took me forever because I could not get the valve stem out. I tried with gloves on, gloves off, my teeth, gloves on again and finally was able to pull it out through the hole. Once I got going again I knew with only 1.5 laps to go I would never catch back up but I put in a good effort just for kicks and ended up 2nd again. That's racing! I am changing valve stems, no more adapters.

I was pleased with my energy levels in the race and suprised considering I have been battleing a cold all week. The heat did not seem to bother me and I think riding home from work at 4pm everyday has helped with climitization. My hope is I can whip this cold just in time to have a good ride in Vermont. Will see!

Bear Lake at the cabin was a good time and Rog and I rode around the lake before hanging on the beach and swimming with Eva. We headed home early as Rosie, Eva, and I are still trying to shake a head cold.

2nd lap climb to the feed zone, note the new Mona Vie kits. We have green, purple, and green and purple coming soon, tough decisions.