Crash 'n Burn

I managed to drag myself down to the 100K bike race yesterday, hoping that being in the presence of so many bikes (and I have to admit--assorted hotties) would lift me out of my mentally and physically tired state. If you're interested, there are more photos at my Flickr page.

Just walking 1/2 mile down to the race was enough exercise for the day. Unfortunately, it pissed rain all day, but at least it wasn't pouring for this race. Secretly, I figured I'd get to see at least one good crash.

Until I started biking seriously myself, I didn't even know this race was a short waltz from home, and now I try and attend it every year. Usually, though, I've come off of a good ride in the morning myself, but not yesterday.

I felt bad for the riders--I don't much like riding in the rain--but they were racing. The bikes sounded differently than in dry weather. It was still fun to watch, and even though there weren't as many spectators as in other (always dry) years, I still ran into a number of people I know. I didn't have it in me to yell at the riders, though. Too much energy!

I got to see the crash in the photo above. It was a smallish crash--earlier there was a 20-rider pileup. This course is a 1.2 mile loop, so there are tons of turns. When it's dry, the place where most crashes occur is the turn off of Washington Street onto Curtiss. But this time, with all the rain, every turn was an opportunity to crash. Velonews.com doesn't yet have a writeup of yesterday's race, but I'm sure crashing will be featured.

Speaking of crashing, I'm not sure what today will bring. I may go put my face into the water shortly to see what happens. It's still raining, the Y pool is closed, I can't swim at the outdoor pool, so if I want to swim, I'll need to go with Plan C, Good Samaritan. Maybe I'll just swim 1/2 hour and then hit the hot tub. Yeah--that sounds like a plan and a good way to start a Monday.