Traditions....

Redg pointing out my finish position....

After the race....

Ready to go home....

The Finchford-Roubaix roadrace was held yesterday with strong northwest winds and cool temps. It's normally held in early April with strong winds and cool temps. I'm not sure how Mike arranged for the weather, but it was exactly what everyone has come to expect for this great race. John made the comment that "if you held it in July, it would snow...." :)

Mike Johnson and his lovely wife, Sweet Amy, deserve a big round of applause for the hours and the detail that they put into this race. Along with them receiving kudos for their work, there are a lot of other Bike Tech people and volunteers that were involved in making this race happen. Thank you to each and every one! You did good! The corners were perfectly clean and staffed with plenty of volunteers who did an excellent job of making the course safe and fun (as well as difficult). I can't say enough about how well this race was organized and staffed. Great turn out by the Bike Tech racers for this event too! Wow!

I have quite a few other pictures that I will post later.

I did get called a "horse's ass" by my darling wife Judy yesterday. In the past couple weeks I've been a "dumbass", simply an "ass", and now a "horse's ass". I was hoping to move up to "smartass", as that seems to be the pinnacle of the asses, but I suppose I have a ways to go to get there. Ahhhh well, I'm young. There's plenty of time:)

I finished in 28th place (DFL). Could I have done better? Absolutely. I didn't work hard enough in the beginning. I had a great position with my team near the front of the group going up the hill a mile and a half into the race. If I'd worked harder for another hundred yards on 3-Tier I would have been fine. I got dropped because I got lazy for a second or two. Once I crested 3-Tier by myself and could see the group just ahead of me I felt that I could catch back on and be fine. Down the hill, around the corner, and over the next few hills with a tailwind. The gap was 50 yards and I just couldn't bridge. When we turned west onto C57 and back into the quartering headwind I knew I couldn't catch back on. I've been riding pretty well this year, but not that well.... I did try. My mistake forced me to ride the rest of the race by myself in that brootal wind. Hopefully I learned something from that. It was my first roadrace in over 20 years and I was happy to finish. That was my goal going into this race. To finish. Sometimes we don't set our goals high enough. Oh well.... It was fun. I enjoyed myself when I wasn't beating myself up for being stoopid. And inattentive for those couple of seconds. I knew better. Believe me, I had plenty of time to reflect out on the race course.

I'd like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there. Where would we be without you?

Have a great day.

Ride safe.

Peace out, yo!