I see pink

Or is that red? Wait is that blood? That's what I expected to spit up after my first venture down to Hardwood for the weekly world cup race. It was time to add a little top end work to that diesel engine. I'm attempting to slap a turbo to it, right now it's very very small. Like usual the start became an uphill grind full of smack talk with team race director standing on the sidelines armed with a camera. I'm assuming he wanted photographic evidence if we were pushing hard enough. I went out fairly hard but at a pace I could sustain. Lead half way up the long start climb when this blur went ripping past me and the trailing group like we were standing still. Not sure what was said pre race but with Andrew there I'm starting to figure Tristan was given another strategy talk. To say he was killing it was an understatement. Of course it was short lived and at the pitch of the hill the brakes in his legs kicked in.

I just settled in the top 5 as we hit the single track. It's been a long time since I've ridden the trails at full speed with my eyes crossed. Keeping myself in a controlled state without clipping a tree, harder than I remember. I do believe I say this at the beginning of each season. Kept the gas on as much as I could, and dropped one spot to Taylor on a double track. From this point on I glanced over my shoulder time to time. Partly to know if I had a gap for comfort, partly to know if my gap was disappearing and scare myself into pushing harder. Power sections I would loose a second or two lead, tech sections I would regain or build my lead. Nothing has changed there.

As the race came closer to the end the dust began to get thicker as all the different races started to come together. My lungs were not liking it much, my body was asking if it could remove the snack I had earlier and place it on the side of the trail. I continued to tell both body parts to shut up. They argued back constantly. Had the race been any longer I'm pretty sure that they would have ganged up on me and recruited the legs as the enforcer. Crossed the line, that hurt. I'm pretty sure the lungs were bleeding after that, max heart rate was higher than it's been all spring. Hopefully after the bleeding stops they'll be a little bigger.

I thought I'd seen enough pink for the evening, nope. A trip to Jacob and Liz's found a big box of goodies. team kits are in, Pink is an understatement. Shiny and new can't describe them enough, there will never ever be a problem spotting any of us during a race again. An evening I needed full of amusement.