Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

Shoulda checked my bik, Woulda not have had the stem come loose, Coulda been a contender. That was the scene last night as 3 AWI racing kits flashed the line at the weekly world cup. Had a great warm up, legs felt great, was riding relatively smooth, felt strange being back on the Anthem. To clarify, I have two and one of them has been hanging on the wall since the end of last season scrubbed and spotless. Of course this meant I assumed that everything on it was perfect and ready to rock. Little did I know.

After 30ish minutes of riding nothing flagged me that there was a problem. Minus the slight shifting quirks which got worked out slowly through the evening. Hit the start line, GO!!! Jacob, Tristan then myself blasted off the line with one other in the mix. 30 seconds in to the race we already had a big gap, 30 seconds into the race with some hard torquing on the bars things went astray for me. The bars were heading one way, the tire the other. Pulled off and let the pack go.

Now I can be a bit of a cheapskate sometimes, I wasn't going to waste $14 on 30 seconds of racing. Headed back to the Chalet, into the shop, quick adjustment and I was heading back to the start line for attempt number two. Got a little bit of a look for the race director as I snuck through the pack for the next course wave and began start number. I figure I was a solid 5 minutes behind at this point, first or last right. Pinned it as hard as I could. New game plan, see how many I can catch. Didn't take long before the first carrot showed up. Of course these races are all for fun so there was no aggressive passing to be done. Just chilled in the single track until there was a safe spot. This was good for me, this forced me to hammer in areas that I'm not normally. You guessed it, hills and double track. It wasn't fun but yet it was.

Another after another spot, feeling good, there was no craving to drop my lunch this time. As the race came closer to an end I was behind a rider from a shop I won't say. To say this guy should be talked to by someone is an understatement. I watched him scream at little kids to get out of the way. Not impressed, of course I opened my big mouth and yelled at him to chill and not run the kids down. Got back on his wheel in the single track, wasn't hard, and figured I'd have some fun with this idiot. Hit the final double track, came around him, looked at him, shook my head and pulled away. Maybe had he pushed a kid over he would have beat me. Maybe he'll try next time, maybe that kids huge father will see this and turn the kid into a pretzel.

Regardless of the scene, was pretty happy with my riding, hoping that it all comes together on Sunday. I've been given orders from AWI Racing race director. Sir Watson has spoken and of course if he says do it, well you just gotta do it. A few easy rides in the mix, some last minute tuning to be done on the bike, it won't do this to me again. Good luck to all my friends and team mates at Tremblant this weekend. Oh and SIr Watson will be on Freecaster.com again this weekend at some thing called a World Cup with a big W and big C unlike our weekly world cup races.