May 14, 2006

Weekend Racing

Thursday started out like all the others here in Wisconsin as of late, raining. It's getting old. It's impossible to train in cause it's too cold and really just makes everything seem gloomy.
There was a mtb race in Cable on Saturday but it was a 6 hour drive and it looked like rain up there too so I decided not to go, it would have cost more in gas than prize money for winning, or just about. Then, Thursday night I'm digging around cyberspace and discover that the Missouri NORBA state championships are also on Saturday and there is a quite sizeable prize purse. A prize purse that you just don't normally see at a local event, one big enough to lure me down.


Friday morning I packed up two bikes, jumped in my car and rallied down to St. Louis' west side for a preride. You could say I was hoping to "poach" the race, but I've learned there is almost never poaching when you're racing in someone else's back yard so I was prepared for a hard race, especially with the prize money, you never know who else is going to show. The locals are always tough on home turf especially as it was there state championship too.
Well, actually you can assume this guy will show. If it's within a 12 hour drive you can consider it his backyard too. Tilford was definitely poaching though, the race promoter kept telling me that Tilford was here "cherry picking" , so if the race promoter says so, you are. I on the other hand was not, cause once a guy like Tilford shows up, you no longer are poaching, but getting poached.

It was funny though cause we both warmed up together and had a good laugh that we both were there for the same reason $$$. I guess Tilford had just gotten back from doing tour of Japan earlier this week, lucky guy! But that also gave me good reason to joke that he was definitely a poacher showing up here after doing tour of Japan 3 days earlier!

Well, as luck would have it, We were riding together on the first lap and Tilly flatted on one of the rocky climbs leaving me to ride the front of the race and hope that he didn't ride his way back up to me after fixing it. It seemed to work out for me though and I was able to win by a few minutes and take home the prize.

I'll have to say it was an awesome race. 6 mile loop with substantial climbs on rocky, rooty, slippery shale rock and then some high speed descents along with two really good technical drops. Even a river crossing for good measure and cold feet. It was lots of fun and a challenging course, really the kind of course I wish more races were on since it seems to fit my style more than most.
And in an effort to "one up" Nick Martin this weekend, check out the size of the bonus check that the local Subaru/VW dealer gave away on top of the prize purse!! Fun stuff when local races go big!
That's the weekend, it's still raining here in Wisconsin so I guess I should have stayed down there a few more days to get some dry training in.


8 comments:

JB said...

The check is sure bigger. But you're going to need more girls jello wrastlin' to really top Martini

well done.

Anonymous said...

now that's one showy podium...

ScottyD said...

Tilford & Team were @ the
Tour of Hong Kong/Shanghai, HKg (2.2)

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2006/may06/cepa06/default

Did the 3rd place guy get the state jersey?

Anonymous said...

It is hard to make out the amount of the check - but a few hundred is well deserved. Congratulations!

Next time you ride with Ryan you are in for a surprise. He is not clipped in to his Time Attack pedals and doing 25MPH sprints. At 9.5 years old I still can't get him interested in the local soccer or little league.

Martini said...

Yep, your check is definitely bigger.... dang it! Oh well, my shoes are still bigger...

Anonymous said...

i was there. great job. hope to see you next year also. big money for the next 3 years. more if you can bring other fast riders into town. by the way, it sucks for us when you guys show up and take all of our money. killer ride though. you deserved it all. now i must get fast so i can finish the race and destroy all on comers. until next time...

Anonymous said...

Dang!
$250 is big money? I figured you pro racer types would get more than that. That is not even a fraction of the money that pros in other sports get. I guess I better stick with golf.

jsager said...

oh snap. I know he didn't..