Infirmary Mound

Today's race was pretty close, at Infirmary Mound Park in Granville. A welcome change from being in the car forever. Instead of sleeping in, I left the house earlier than usual since Daniel, my teammate, was racing today. I left the house a little bit before 10, gassed up and on my way. I got to the park around 11:30, plenty of time to mingle, watch and warm up.

One word can sum up the course, fast. The course was very dry and flowed very well, and did I say it was fast. You would rip through corners so fast it felt like a crit. I actually had to use the brakes a few time since I would go into the corners way too hot if I didn't.

I was top 5 in Cap City so I got a front row start. I got a really good start again and the front group put a sizable gap on the rest of the field. After about half a lap, I was jettisoned from the lead group. A few people passed me and by a rough count, I was sitting around 10th place. This was my best start and middle section of the race. Unfortunately, disaster struck. I took a u-turn way too fast and the pavement dropped into grass and I rolled my tire. The tire got jammed into the brake and I couldn't roll it back on. I panicked and just shouldered the bike and started to run. However it was a long way to the pit. I came to my senses and let some air out of the tire and popped the tire back on. But now I had a long downhill on a tire with about 10psi and about to come off. I took the downhill gingerly and made my way to the pit to pick up my spare.

However, the spare bike was not without any problems. I am pretty sure that I put in the same amount of air in the tires but it felt a lot lower. It could be because they are different tires and different manufacturers. It took me a lap or two to really get a hang of it and be able to rail the corners. To make things even worse, a few laps later, my right pedal refused to clip in. I really didn't know if it was the pedal, the cleat, or I busted the shoe. But one thing is for sure, its pretty impossible to ride with a Crank Brother's Candy that doesn't clip in. At that point, I really didn't care anymore. I only had 2 laps to go (I got lapped) so I just rode at a moderate pace and finished up.

I guess my equipment finally caught up to me and gave me some troubles. I have been pretty lucky so far except for blowing up a brand new Grifo XS in my second race (which is coming back retubed.)

This week is a taper week so not much training. I will also have to glue some tires, and I thought I was done. Double weekend in Indy next weekend!

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