Back At It

I'm not back at it quite yet, but will be again this weekend. On Sunday only. It's the course where I got my first podium last year but unfortunately, I'm pretty certain there won't be a repeat. Racing this year has been different in a lot of ways, but the most noticeable has been the weather. The grass/dirt crits we usually get have been replaced by sloppy mudfests. Everyone used to complain because the races were too fast and dusty. Now it's because it's too muddy. To be fair, they're both fun but they both also suck in their own, special way. And neither benefits me more than the other so as long as there are races, I'll just be happy to be on the line.

I raced a couple weeks ago on two pretty different courses. The first was in Brighton. I've never raced in Belgium, but I had a picture in my head that this is what it would look like. Basically a pasture that's bumpy as hell and thick with mud. I had a good start and then, after running over the first set of barriers in mid-pack, some guy ran into me. I'm still confused as to how he hit me, but he did and we both went down. Back on the bike I struggled to get going and after it didn't get better after half a lap, I realized it was because my brakes were rubbing since they got jacked up when I went down. Now securely bringing up the back of the pack, I pushed my way through the race while riding in no man's land and chalked it up to gaining some fitness. When I woke up the next morning I realized that I needed to also chalk it up to getting beat up by the course with all the bumps. My entire body was tired and fatigued, and when Whiskey and Tacoma wanted to go out at 7 in the morning, I debated going back to bed for the rest of the day. Instead, I went and raced.

Race day 2 was much better for me. It was a boring course on the pre-ride, but one that I liked at race pace. Good, long straight sections where you could recover and get some speed, but were broken up by good technical sections that were loosened up with some mud. My race was solid where I went out a bit too fast and paid for it on the second lap before pulling back some ground later on. It was another bumpy course and I knew afterwards that I needed a little break. Perfect timing since I was going to get it in the way of New Orleans the following week!

Warming up on the trainer.

On the start line. Still clean.

Carrying a muddy, heavy bike.

Believe it or not, I actually do some things other than race my bike. Trips tend to interfere with my budding career as an amateur, mid to back of the pack bike racer, but I take them anyway. And knowing that the trip to New Orleans was for a friend's bachelor party, I knew it would be a long but fun weekend. The weirdness started early when the guy next to me on the plane pulled out his tarot cards. Of course,he did a reading and I'll say that it was surprisingly accurate. Once landed I began my personal assault on chocolate filled beignets. Unlike my bike racing, I won this battle with no competition. Once some other friends arrived we began the assault on Bourbon St and well, there are no winners there. I'm not sure how to explain the place but it's like a New Year's Eve party all day long. I get the 20 and 30-somethings partying, but the surprising parts were the 40, 50, 60, etc year olds that were partying full throttle. And it wasn't just at the later hours of the day. It was All. Day. Long. At 10:00 in the morning people were stumbling around like they'd been boozin for the last 6 hours. Maybe they were. At any rate, we were able to find some good bars and have some fun falling back into the same routine even though it's been a while since we've all been together. The weekend went by quickly but to be honest, one weekend is about all you really need to spend there. While I managed to make it out of town without downing a hurricane or a hand grenade, I was able to find my way to plenty of oysters (raw and grilled) and a catfish po' boy. Healthy? Uh, no. Tastey? Definitely. I went with tastey and so did the three guys that went through something like $60 worth of sliders for a little late night snack. Glad I wasn't sleeping in that room!

It wasn't all  debauchery though. We had a really good dinner at August, which is one of John Best's restaurant, John Best being a James Beard award winning chef. Despite the inverse relationship between portion size and price, the food was delicious and we still left completely full and satisfied.