FLAT FLAT FLAT!!!

3 times I wrote it because that is how many flats I got yesterday at the Dunnigan Hills Road Race.

Flat #1...10 minutes before the start of the cat3 race. Luckily I brought a spare set of wheels for the follow vehicle. I stayed calm, changed the front wheel, fixed the flat and got to the line.

Flat #2....10 miles into the race cruising along in the top 20 or so and feeling good. As we make a turn, poof. Flat #2. This just happens to be the rear wheel. Instinctively I raise my hand high, riders go around and the wheel truck pulls up. But not quite close enough. I need to run back 30 yards to her. I grab my rear wheel and make the change. As I look up the road, the race is going away but a bit of luck. A guy named Mike, who wants to race for the Mouse next year pulls off and comes back to try and help me get back into the race. Sweet! We hammer and can still see the bunch when all of a sudden the wheel truck pulls in front of us. SWEET! She is going to let us draft up and get back into the race. Not quite. She dangles 30 meters ahead of us never letting us draft and after a mile of this tease, she takes off...DAMN!!! Basically race is over. My future teammate and I continue taking pulls but its an exercise in futility. At least it will be a good workout. Then we come across another rider who tells us the group is going slow and we can catch. All of sudden its 3 of us taking pulls and trying to pull ourselves back into the race. We paceline and bust our ass for 10 miles. Then the 3rd guy says they are only 5 minutes up the road. 5 MINUTES!!! What is this guy smokin'!!! We are not getting back into this race. I decide to save some for the Suisun crit tomorrow and sit up but my future teammate Mike had already given up the chase and is no longer around. Lonely now I soft pedal till Mike and the 30+ race catch us. We jump in and draft off of them to the start area. race over.

Flat #3...Now back at the car I decide to ride the 3 miles to the finish and watch. Just as I get there a group is sprinting for the finish when all of a sudden there is a loud POP and riders go down. In what I can only describe as a SPECTACULAR CRASH 3 guys go down just before the line with 1 guy flying upside down and backwards crashing into a Velo Promo road sign and crossing the line. HOLY CRAP!!! THAT WAS AWESOME!!! (hope that dude was ok) With that, I figure I have seen enough and start heading back to the car when flat# 3 happens. DAMN!!! I now race back to the car as the front wheel continues to lose air and get there just as the tire goes completely flat.

My day sucked but after seeing that crash...it could have been worse.