Tuesday Night Crit Racing

okay, the organizers say it's not a race just a training ride, but whatever, we know the truth.  If you keep track of laps there's gonna be a race.  Just sayin'.  The thing that made this particular ride fun was that Hubby decided to come along.  Actually, he said that if I didn't suck it up and just go ride he was going to have to come along and kick my butt. 

Bring it home-slice.

This is why in our pre-marital counseling our pastor said we weren't allowed to compete against each other.  It never ends well. 

Truthfully, I was a little worried.  Not about him....about me!!  Here I am on my fancy road bike with all the bells and whistles about to get my a$$ handed to me on a silver platter by Hubby on a $50 road bike from the '80s called "Le Tour."   I mean really, how does that look?  Crappy bike or not, he's completely capable of beating me.  So on the drive over I set a goal:  I will hang on to his wheel for the whole 45 minutes, even if it kills me.  He knew it too, and I knew he wasn't going to cut me any slack.  Game on baby!

The first lap of the race is always neutral -- that just means that the speed demons in the lead pack a chance to get away from the slowpokes before they really crank it up and get moving.  (I am neither speed demon nor slowpoke, in case you were wondering.  I'm more of an Average Joe).  As soon as the first lap was done Hubby pulled out in front of me.  Perfect, I thought,  I'm just going to sit on your wheel for the rest of the night.  This will be easy.  Yeah, he dropped me on the back half and got ahead of me by a good distance.  I managed to catch up a little on the downhill grade, but he corners really well and I'm a big chicken about going fast on corners, so everytime we turned he'd gain a little ground.  After playing cat and mouse for about 20 minutes, I finally caught him.  I even pulled him along for a couple of laps.

When the 2 lap warning was given I was still pulling and trying to pick up the pace because I could feel him breathing down my neck.  At the 1 lap warning I was still in front and starting to get antsy because I knew he would make a move at some point, and sure enough, just after turn #2 on the backside he slingshot right past me grinnig and taunting as he flew by. 

Sonofabeach!  Crap! PEDAL FASTER!!

I averaged about 20 mph on the back stretch (which has the slightest uphill grade) and managed to catch him before turn #3.  HAHA!!  I rode his wheel all the way into turn #4 and as soon as we took the corner it was a dead sprint to the finish line.  I hate to admit it, but he won by the width of his tire.  If I had remembered that I had aerobars on my bike, it may have been a different finish, although with one victory under his belt I'm sure he'll retire from crit racing just so I can't beat him next time.  He's onery like that.

Afterwards we went home and cooked dinner together  - spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, Bud Light and cherry pie.  The couple who carbo-loads together, stays together.