Hagerstown

Went to Hagerstown to see family and while I was in town they had a race, perfect! Well my Grandpa and Grandma got to see me race and I wanted to win so bad. I didn't cheat although the officials were tuff on my mom and wife about my Dads tubular wheel that flated.

Yep they almost took me out of the race. This rear tubular tire only had 200 racing miles on it and 200 more training at a 16 mph pace. Here is why they almost DQ me. As the race started 200 yards up the road riders got tangled up and went down right in front of me. I locked up the rear tire and avoided the wreck. Thank you Lord! Then half way through the race on the hardest turn on the course the tire blew. Right in the apex of the turn at 20 mph. Guys freaked out behind me thinking I was going to go down. I thought I was going to because I have never had a flat tubular before. If this would have been a clencher tire I would have gone down with no ?'s asked or I would have jumped the crub in the turn if I was lucky not to go down instantly which would have happened. Thank the Lord again, man God is so good.

Any way the women official looked at the tire and told my mom and wife that it was a old tire. What ever, she had no clue! We even looked at it after the race and you can tell it had more tread on it than a new pair of shoes, well maybe not that much. I cut the tire open and looked at it closely.

Back to the race, I didn't go for a prime all day and I played like I was hurting all day. After all know one knows me and it is a game. Our avg speed was less than my first road race in the cat 5's and this was a crit course totally flat and in the elite cat. I went with a break late in the race and six of us were out there and I thought I knew one of the riders. I looked up his name and he won the CSC elite race that year and I was going to stay on his wheel in the end. So I did and we left a rider dangle in front of us. I was hoping this guy would have a kick fast enough to get closer to the other guy but he had nothing. So I got 2nd place by maybe a half a foot and ten yards past the finish line I had 3 bike lengths. Thank the Lord I didn't go down that day and also thank the Lord I made a $150 dollar mistake, cause I sure did learn from that one.