Warning, Boring Ride Report Ahead

No, not really. In fact, this is a fascinating, EPIC ride report!

Monday night, after amusingly destroying Proximate Drea’s tire while demonstrating the operation of a Presta valve, I made the plans for the perfect ride.

The problem: doing some work at the Coquitlam campus in the morning, then going to New Westminster, then I want to race at UBC that night.

The solution: ride the Pinarello to Coquitlam. Teach course. Change into racing gear, ride to New West. Work rest of shift. Attend amusing seminar on team-building exercises in afternoon. Don’t go home, but instead ride to UBC. Race. Leave UBC by bike, ride to Main Street station, take Skytrain to Lougheed Mall, ride home.

The perfect plan!

And really, it all worked out. I got to the race in plenty of time, and the ride served as a superb warm-up for the race. I was able to jump right from the gun (important in a 25-minute race) and stayed close to the front until the prime lap. Alas, as we approached the line on the prime sprint, one rider went down during the last corner. He took one or two riders out (not me, but it was close), and between that and the sprint and the junior race and the novice women, the race was a hash from then on. The race organizers could barely keep track of our race after that, and a few riders escaped from me between the sprint and the crash, and that was that.

I hooked up with two riders and we worked together, but we weren’t really catching anyone since our race had already ended. Somehow at least three riders got ahead of us in the prime, and stayed away until the end. Which sounds about right.

So it goes. I stayed around long enough to pick some finishers in a few other races, and then I rode home. Got to Main Street, and took my planned bail-out. Home by 2100. A long, but very good day of riding.

In other bike news, the build of Rebecca’s bike is coming along nicely: it will have Grip shifters in time for the weekend, and possibly even new brakes. The 7-speed BMX will probably be completed during the party, given how these things go.

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