The cat is out of the bag

It didn't take to long for people to do the math last night and a few blunt questions, assumptions, accusations were made pretty quickly. Where was I that this happened, where else. Albion Hills for the last weekly race of their series and another preride of what now is the official 24 hour of Hot August Nights course. I think I was in the parking lot for less than a minute before the first person asked me what I was doing for the weekend. As I socialized with a few just before the start of the race an old friend/main competitor avoided asking but could see he wanted to know what I was up to.

So the answer is yes I am riding Hot August Nights solo. Now the main wording is ride, not race. I kept this very low key because I'm also trying to keep things very low key in my head also. No strategy, no stress of pre race hype, no self inflicted stress which I tend to do to myself. My original plan of just sneaking into the pack unseen at the beginning of the race was great but unrealistic. I'll be setup in the main solo area this time for easy of things for my favorite and greatest support crew consisting of my Mom and Aunt. They work like an F1 crew.

SO what brought on the decision to race. First up was the crash at the summer 8 hour. When the series overall was pretty much out the window, I got zero points at the second race, I sent Heather my idea. Of course my body was pretty out of whack so it was all judging on how things felt during the Mountainview 9 hour. Obviously things seemed to be pretty good. The other decision was the course. After the preliminary ride the Sean and Adam took us on I was pretty stoked about the course. It was fun, racing it last night was fun. Still lots of climbing but it's a course that I will want to ride over and over again.

As for attitude for the race, yes I'm going into it low key and plan on riding it a little different than I have in the past. Funny thing is sitting at the start line with Tristan Smit who I normally battle it out with, and may again, who knows, said he was planning to do pretty much the same thing I did. Could I end up riding with him? Maybe. There could be a neutral truce between us till late in the race?

As for the weekly race. Things went pretty good, clipped a tree and knocked of my chain about 10 minutes into the race which made me back down just a hair for the rest of the race. I lost about 7-8 spots when that happened but made up a few of them. Fast lap, around 42 minutes for me. With a little desire, if on a team could be push close to 40 minutes. There will be laps below that depending on who is playing this weekend. There is lots of climbing in the course and the numbers show it but yet I didn't notice it, that's maybe a good thing.

There will obviously be more posts on who what, where and why over the next couple days as things come together.