Like a Balloon

The quality of life on my end of things has only been going up lately, and now I'm convinced it's because of all the stretching, sleeping, and other healthy stuff I've been doing. This week was pretty amazing, once again. My dad and I rode the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (GOBA), a seven day ride with 50 miles/day and 100 on Thursday. The weather was perfect. There wasn't one drop of rain the whole week, at least not while I was awake. The Tour of Ohio always has a crit stage in one of the same towns (Mount Vernon this year) that GOBA is staying. That's always fun to watch. The course was Tym's "Mt. Vernon Classic", a great course around the square, downhill through an "S", up a brick section, and back to the square. After the Tour stage, there was a cat 4/5 race. I entered even though I already rode 55 miles, figuring it was my last chance to do a 4 race. The first lap was hot, but everybody wanted to take the corners slow and I was pretty sure I could do the whole course without brakes (thanks, cyclocross!). There was an early attack that brought out about five guys, including me. On the second lap, everybody hurt, and they slowed down more than usual for the corner into the bricks. I sprinted out of the corner, up the bricks and around the wide turn to the S/F, hoping to draw out one guy that I could ride with for a while and try to drop later. Well, nobody came with me, and I had already burned up too many matches to quit, so I went solo. I put about two seconds on the field per lap for about six laps just by not touching the brakes, then they quit chasing and I lapped everybody. It was just like a juniors race, now that I'm thinking about it. Anyways, I came away with a $10 prime, a pair of Tym's Torelli carbon handlebars , and my first win of the season. It's about time!

-Russ

PS: new party music