Stanridge Race Report

Im happy to report all of us in the Columbus caravan finished in the top 10!

Jake and I were on my frames. I made Jake's frame with Columbus SL steel tubes. My frame is Dedacciai steel.

Germantown is 30-40 minutes outside of Dayton to the East. When we arrived to the course it was raining with a strong 10 MPH wind out of the north. We were smart and brought our rain capes. It was amazing to see the turnout in the horrible conditions. I spoke to one guy in my cat from Chicago.

All the cats fired off at 2 minute intervals in a rolling start to the first turn of the 8 mile loop we were going to be buzzing around. Jake and I rolled out in Cat 5 which was composed of roughly 50-60 guys. I knew turn 3 was going to be hairy into a "chip and seal" county road. What I wasn't expecting was to drop my chain on turn four.

The peleton was "rubber banding" pretty heavily in the first few miles with all the guys getting a feel for each other riding 3-4..sometimes 5 wide and bumping bars occasionally. As the upper echelon turned through four I was caught on the inside held my line, dropped 2 and powered out when i heard a loud pop.. damn.. my chain dropped. I heard Jake yelling out mechanical to my back left "you need me to stop" He screamed out.. keep in mind everyone is still jittery and powering out of 4. I was afraid I was going to get rear ended by a greenback.. I coasted to the right popped my chain back on. Looking back.. it was an ideal place as i had the wind to my back and a 90 about a quarter mile up the road. I pedaled like I was running from a charging bull and bridged the gap by myself in less than a 1000 yards..

I pulled up to Jake "whats up homie?!"

We're in a high speed decent on the back side..est 30-35 MPH following a creek. The hill side had partially washed out onto the road.. (still first lap, no idea)

Note to beginners DO NOT lock up your rear brake.. use the front! I promise you wont fly over the bars....

Anyway the guy in front of me notices a nice basketball sized crater on the right and decides to lock it up on the wet muddy pavement.. (descending around 30mph)

He starts to high side himself right in front of me (Yippy..here we go!) He's looking up at me.. all i remember is his kit.. red and white..white helmet.

I start to t-bone him pretty badly according to Jake..who again is off to my left trying to stay to the right of the double yellow so he doesn't get DQ'ed...and yet again watching from the sideline.

I pull off some type of maneuver that would make joey chitwood proud and hop over this guy going around 20mph. My feet take the liberty to unclip from my eggbeaters and i promptly slam my manhood into my sweet dedacciai top tube. My pearls fly out like landing gear and I remember hearing the delrin of the front cleats grinding down on the wet pavement.. remember this is lap 1 of a 34 mile race..... Some how I recover hop back on and the rest is history... Fun day at the first sanctioned race of the year.