The finish
The day improved greatly, however, after we visited the way cool Magic Hat Brewery in South Burlington for some samples and a jug of Jinx to take home, straight from the tap.
That officially wraps up the GMSR. My 30+ field started with 45 riders, mostly Cat 1, 2, and 3. I finished 27th overall on the GC. I can't really complain about that, given the studs in this field and their stage race experience.
The race itself was pretty remarkable. That doesn't mean much coming from me, but the fact that people from all over the east and beyond keep coming back every year shows how good it really is.
So now I am here until the weekend, relaxing on a mountaintop property in a rustic cabin on 75 acres with our dogs and the 28 sled dogs that reside here.
I guess it's now time for cyclocross.
7 comments:
Yours sounds like a great way to spend a vacation. Congrats on surviving what sound like four brutal stages!
Great job Dave. That's a very hard stage race. It'll make cross seam easy!!
Overall, sounds like a great time. Now just so I understand correctly, you didn't put your mouth right on the tap and drink straight out of it, sitcom style, did you Dave? I've had some of Magic Hat's Circus Boy and it's good stuff.
I like the shot of you rounding the first corner.
It's funny what appeals to hard-core cyclists, isn't it? You deliberately set out to make yourself suffer, and often do so with the full expectation -- even the goal -- not of winning, but of finishing in the middle of the pack and maybe getting hurt in the process. Why do we do it? I'm not sure, but I'm thinking about it a lot as I nurse my latest hematoma.
You think golfers could ever understand? They think suffering is running out of stuff to drink with four holes to play.
Nice effort. That's a very respectable result.
I don't know what sounds better -- the race, or hanging out there afterward.
I may have to put this on the calendar for next year. How long did the drive end up being?
Thanks all.
Jim, did you crash again?
Brian, it's about 10 hours of driving, plus stops. I'm pretty sure I'm sold on going again next year.
I resent the implication in your question. I did not "crash again." My bike did. Well, my friend Joe's bike -- a mountain bike -- crashed, with me aboard it, at West Branch. Repeatedly.
What's really odd is that while I was mountain biking (on wet roots and rocks) for only the second time, the bike has more than a decade of experience. And yet it crashed, bringing both of us down. Repeatedly.
Post a Comment