I did a race yesterday in the small town of Külsheim, Baden-Wurtenburg, Germany. Having just looked at the results, I only missed 3rd by 30 seconds. Wish that I'd realized that I was that close. I had thought it was far more than that and was more worried about losing my present position to the guy that I'd battled with for most of the race.
So, on the last lap, I turned on what gas I had and left him behind. I was at the line when he came through and he gave me trouble for turning on the gas and leaving him (i.e "Du hast gas geben!").
It was probably the muddiest race that I've ever done. Other than that, conditions were good. Warmish, but not too much and it sprinkled every once in awhile.
One thing was kind of funny though. Many of the people that started with gears, ended with one gear due to the crazy amount of mud. At the award ceremony we had to laugh abot it.
The course was partially pavement, dirt (farm) roads and then about 25% singletrack. On the first lap about half way through the singletrack I heard something running and turned to the left in time to see a deer (think giant poodle sized animal) coming straight for my front wheel. It missed me by inches.
The rest of the race was uneventful other than battling with a guy named Markus for most of the race and the deep and very slimy mud.
We picked up a fantastic new sponsor for BWR. It's Ergon products. I've mentioned before how great their stuff is. Kera's been using some of their grips for a long time now and they've done a lot to ease her hand problems on the bike. I think that we've got some other new sponsors as well and I'll tell you about them as I find out.
I put in my application for a job at one of the schools that I teach for. I have an all-day interview on Friday. With the number of hours that I'm working this week, I'm going to love the weekend.
Somehow, I need to find/make time to measure the old Black Sheep before I pull it apart and put the new one together. After that, I need to send the old one back.
