The Race....

Passing Jackal....
Passing Brother of Jackal....

They couldn't keep up....

The Queen of Cross looks back to check the competition....

Baby Rhea, Queen of Cross, asks if we won....

Oh yeah, we won....

The First Annual Buchanan Boys Kinda Semi-Urban Cyclocross Race took place this evening with the "Old Man" and Baby Rhea taking home the top spot on the podium. What a race it was! We took off to the east on Rainbow and then headed north on Niagra up to Grand Blvd. From there we headed east again to North Hackett and flew down the hill, under the trolly car bridge, and north up to the bike path. It was a close race at this point with Jackal and Brother of Jackal fighting for the lead. Rhea's advice to me was to just sit in and let them blow themselves up, so that's what I did. About the time we were getting to the trailside shelter at Hartman North I saw my chance and took it. I got on Brother of Jackal's wheel then slipped by both of them and just pedaled my ass off. Rhea just kept giving me encouragement and confidence. We pulled a pretty good gap on them but they started catching up when we were climbing the grade to Pfeiffer Park and Krieg's Crossing. She kept telling me to just pace myself and all would be fine. I wondered to myself "what would Fat Albert do?" I listened to her and did as she suggested. Shortly after cresting the hill and heading into Pfeiffer they both got by us for a couple of seconds but again I pedaled like my life depended on it and we were in the lead again and we held it all the way to Utility Parkway. Jackal got around before we got to the bike path and then Brother of Jackal got around also. Rhea said to just take it easy and we'd get them on the climb over the dike at Washington Park. That girl knows her stuff! We blew them away on that climb and led all the way to the Main Street bridge and then to the far side of the river and into Gateway Park. At this point we were about halfway into the 8.86 mile race and I knew we could win it if we just raced smart. The boys were starting to fade at this point and wanted to stop to get a drink at the shelter and being the good sports that we are, Rhea and I said fine. We were on fire and knew we had this race in the bag! When we took off again Rhea told me to go like hell and let them chase us. I knew what she was suggesting so I went like a bat out of hell and pulled a nice gap again, then slowed down to rest and let them catch up. As soon as they caught up with us we took off again, forcing them to chase without rest. Good tactic! It worked like a charm. When we got to Krieg's Crossing we slowed down again and let them catch up then we climbed that killer bridge and pulled about a 500 foot gap on them. Once on the other side of the river we hung a left and took off down the hill like there was no tomorrow. I think we had a bit of a weight advantage on the downhill sections of the course and we were going for broke! Only 2 1/2 miles to go! Lookout Park hill is about an 18% climb for half a mile. I knew we'd have an extreme disadvantage here so I turned right and headed up that hill pedaling with all my might. I could hear them starting to close on us but I could also hear Jackal breathing hard and Brother of Jackal cussing and moaning. This could make or break the race for us so I put my head down and got out of the saddle and coaxed the Surly along. Again I wondered "what would Fat Albert do?" I have to admit that I started to have doubts when Jackal pulled along side of us but when I looked over at him and saw that he was struggling I smiled at him and looked him square in the eyes.... That's when Baby Rhea won the race for us. How, you ask? She spoke up in that sweet soft voice of hers and said to Jackal "is that all you've got, Daddy?" Whoaaaa! That girl has the heart of an assassin!!!! Brother of Jackal blew up on the climb and limped the last mile and a half back to the finish line in my driveway. I have to give Jackal a lot of credit though.... he came on strong in the end and finished about 2 seconds behind us. It was a great innaugural event and the spectators as well as the racers had a great time. Rhea flashed her big blue eyes at Jackal as soon as she got out of the Burley and all was good! It was a great race!!!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!