Nationals @ Fontana

The first national race came around right before my ass had healed from the previous weeks debacle at Firestone. Rode a couple of times to work just to see how I felt and it wasnt pretty. Going into the marathon race on Friday I knew it was going to be a long day, but was it ?

Chris Sharp ( Backbone manager of death) picked me up at the ass-crack of dawn (I dont mean Dawn Lyons crack, literally!) I was praying we wouldnt be able to make it to registration because the race itself started at 7:30am. Driving like a maniac and sweet talking like Barry White, he got me registered with 15 minutes to spare. The rookie I am, thought I didnt need to warm-up ... my first lap will be the warm-up. Big mistake! With Chris Eatough and Jay Henry on the line and Veeze Price giving me the horns of doom, I was ready to race.

Bang ! We were off in a flash. Luckily the hosts made us amateurs do 6 laps while the pros had to do 7. Fine with me at this juncture. My back started to cramp trying to keep up with the Pros, did I mention they are fast. I will be mentioning that couple of times throughout this blog. Luckily I got a flat 4 miles into the first lap. Racers passing me one at a time as i franticly change my flat. My back loosened up a bit jumping on the bike and started to see the riders that passed me . The last downhill section before the flat backstretch . POP ! Another one ! Its gonna be a long day. For your own information I have really bad achilles tendons because of xc running in high school . That 2 mile run to the tech area sucked royaly. But hey remember my goals ? no DNF no matter what.

Thanks to Chris meeting me at the tech area and dropping off some goodies to feed on. I dont need an actual person at the feed zone, I can manage myself. But those cheers and high fives are so wonderful. Also the random guy who helped also is cool in my books . Kenda Tubes kick ass, didnt have a flat after that. After all that chaos I felt good and charged the next couple of laps. Passed a few more racers and generally took time off of each lap. Everytime a pro lapped me I tried my best to hold on to his wheel but to no avail. Those guys are mutants. Did I mention very nice and supportive ? Yes, they are .

Highlight of the race came when I came passing through the start/finish line. The announcers were told of my nickname ; given by the Infamous Jim Roff. "Legend in the making ...Fuzzy comes through with high spirits after his miserable first lap". Now that was cool. The team waxing my body and all was also funny.

All in all I was happy with the performance. It was great to see other riders finishing behind me unlike Firestone when I sweeped the course. Gives me confidence and motivation to work harder for the upcoming nationals and championships. Like I always say ... I'm just a kid on a bike having fun. The smile on my face should be proof of that.

Thanks to Chris for driving me out there and cheering. Jim Wannamakebabies from Kenda. Those semi-slick Small Block 8's are so sweet now. Veeze Price for being so damn amped up all the time, you kick ass!

Special shout-outs :
Bert the Hurt for getting 17th out of 54 in semi-pro. Hes 87 years old.
Bert the Hurt for getting 1st in Super-D . He's 92 years old.
All the Pros that showed up and ripped it ! That includes Christie and Teri !
The Singlespeeders on Sunday! Milkman and Veeze for consuming more beers than they rode laps.
Jay for his 15th place DH finish , Kick ass !!!

Check out Jimbo's site . The Roff Report . Amazing stuff in Colorado!