CROSSROADS

Well Crossroads has finally come. Needless to say, something always goes wrong. For some reason, every time I plan on doing well in a race, I never do well. Last year, I was peaking for the Jerry Springer road race. When the Springer road race comes, I end up having the worst day on the bike I have ever had. Bar none, nothing has even come close to that day. I felt horrible. So what happens here? About a week before the races, I begin feeling weak. The day before the race, I begin vomiting. I vomit three times, the third being pretty bad. Needless to say, after that, I have nothing in my stomach and I can't hold anything down. So I'm going into Mondays race and I am afraid to eat much. I just got done recovering from some illness and I am getting ready to race the biggest races of the year.
Well, I show up to the start line and there are "only" two full U.C.I. teams there. When I say full, I mean 10 guys per team. The first race had about 70 starters. My broseph Stefan and I were the only ones representing my team. We get to the start line and we are stuck at the back. The race starts and I don't move up immediately. Instead, I take my time. I decide to take it easy at first cause too many times have I blown up trying to move up too quickly. So Stefan immediately goes to the front and starts mixing it up with the big guns. He does great! Midway through, I begin moving up. 40 minutes in, there is a prime and everyone goes on the right, I am stuck on the left. I somewhat salvage my position, but it was just too much. I try moving up again, but my stomach begins hurting. We are coming into the last couple of laps and some is dropping the hammer. I am holding on for dear life, but I still hold on. With 3 laps to go it eases up, but I am too tired and I can't recover. We go around the first turn on the last lap and I see Stefan on the ground. NOT COOL! I go around, finish the race, then make sure he is ok. He bike got somewhat mangled, but it ended up being ok. I come across the finish line near the back of the field, but I still finished. Last year I could not even do that on this race. I am happy with the performance. After being sick, I didn't know what to think. I figured I would have be dropped very early on, but that was not the case.
The next race was last night (Wednesday) The course is the shortest course at only .4 miles long. Last year, this was the only race I finished. (we averaged 29) The race starts and it is chaos. This time, there is another full team in the mix, Team Bissell. They show up with 9 guys. There are constant surges and the race wasn't quite as smooth as last year. Stefan begins mixing it up yet again, and I take a more conservative approach. The course has alot of pot holes and Stefans wheel ends up coming out of true, to the point where he could not go on. So I am the only one remaining. With about 30 laps to go there is a split in the field and I am in the second half. About this time, my stomach begins hurting and I am very uncomfortable. The bomb gets dropped with 8 laps to go, and I am shelled. I do not finish this race. Tonight is the race in Salisbury. A larger course which I will probably do better on. I will let you know how I do tomorrow, race time is at 8:45 pm.
The Crow