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Sunday, September 19, 2010

superfly cyclocross machine passes test

hermann under the lights was last night. furiously fantastic course, great venue, ect. (thank you jeff yielding!!) however, the evening was destined to end in weather carnage. after a very hasty push to get the race started as the storm was moving in, the officials charged us into an oncoming vehicle. one rider went down, the rest thankfully avoided death. a quick restart 60 seconds later rushed us headlong into frightening lightning and a downpour. the downpour was not the problem, but the lightning, as anyone in middle missouri will attest, was a problem. only one lap in, the officials then hit the "one lap to go, we're calling the race" button. huh??? why the hell start the race with a certainty that it will be cancelled??? in missouri, one is certain to get a scarlet letter for ANY criticism about the way a race is run, so i am risking a lot by even mentioning this. but, it cannot go unmentioned in my opinion. failure to look out for rider safety is an issue that i cannot overlook. i fully expect a rash of "don't like it, don't race" hate mail, but some things are worth it.

regardless, it was a nice test of the superfly cyclocross bike. my bike handling was right where it should have been. i only finished half-way through the group (15th was the official placing) but i was in control of that and was in a group that i felt i could move on from. only time will tell, but this should work out just fine.

3 comments:

Brian said...

It was a bad decision to start the race with surrounding lightning. I mentioned it on stlbiking. I'm the only one "bitching."

Pedal Brake Pedal by TK said...

correct, i read the post. i knew what would happen. criticism is not allowed here, and i think that is a crime.

martin said...

well put. i was asking for a refund that night and everyone was looking at me like i was high. i agree with you both. if a race is less than half the time it's supposed to be (1/6 in this case) i think a refund is expected.