DCCX 2009

My second year doing this race--a real carnival atmosphere, though the frites weren't nearly as good. The honey crisp apples were ridonkulous. Fourth race of the year, and I'm just treading water.

That was a hard race, and I just couldn't lay down any power where I needed to. Made for a slow slog. Paul passed me twice (once in the first lap, and then once when he lapped me), and Neil gave me some good words as he blew my doors off while also lapping me. Even the remounts weren't working today, but all the other technical stuff was no problem, other than the utter slowness...there was that one little piece of banked turn near the staging area, just before the asphalt, where you just let the bike rip around it and you feel the centripetal force STICKING the wheels into the turn--just getting to do that 5 times a year is worth the effort.

All indicators point to a distinct pattern in the old CX resume here--14 races in 5 years, many top 125 finishes, a coupla DNF's. That would be "trending downward". But who cares, since the highlight of the day was invoking the brilliant dialogue in "Dude Where's My Car" when Kemal asked me what number he was and I did the same...Dude. Sweet! Dude. Sweet! WHAT'S MY NUMBER?

After that it was nose to the grindstone, the smile from amusing ourselves with silly lines from silly movies turning into a frown of "why the hell do I do this anyway" turning back to a smile when everyone is there at the end with cookies and cowbells. It's a good addiction, and glad to have some cool people to share it with.

Tacchino is next!