I am Jack's raging bile duct.

Watched Fight Club last night...

2nd by a hair or 9

So Saturday the race was up at Sundance. I can't recall ever going to Sundance before, but man they have some fun singletrack. The race was fun as usual and really proved to me even farther how cool the guys are in the fat ass class. They changed the race start order, and I think that was a really good idea. They started us with the 50+ class, and for the most part we finished side by side with them. The first race they started us dead last, and we had to fight our way through the beginner classes. With this start order I only had to pass a few people (maybe 10) that weren't in our class, and swapped back and forth with my buddy Dennis. As the race started Christopher took off and put a huge lead in front of the rest of the pack. I think he jumped out to hard. It took me about 2 miles to reel him in and take the lead. I led the rest of the first lap, and coming around for my second I thought that I had a pretty decent lead. I slowed up just a bit on the climb back up the road, and then just after getting on the singletrack I was passed by Bryce. I was really surprised, I didn't think he was there, and apparently got to the start just as we left. Well I turned it back on as hard as I could. On the first lap I had a low branch pull off my hydration pack bite valve, and I had lost most of my water. I think I was dehydrated. Well the first chance I could I rocketed by Bryce and as I go by he said, "Nice job, I think this race is yours." I pushed even harder and put 3-4 people between us, and then tried to keep that spread between us. I was doing fine and had caught a slower rider on the last climb, and I made a mistake of trying to pass him on a switchback. I had a mis-shift, and had to dam a foot. By the time I got back to where I could get rolling Bryce had caught me. He was really good and offered to wait for me to get going so I could win, again uttering, "You deserve to win." I was still in the wrong gear and told him to go ahead. I was right on his tire on the way down, and I knew that I had two choices. Try a kamikaze pass on the downhill, or wait until the road and try to drag race it to the end. I couldn't hold myself back and tried the kamikaze, and if had another two feet of trail I would have pulled it off. It was way cool and after the race Bryce said that it was one of the gutsiest moves he had ever seen, and that he thought I was going to make it. In retrospect I think I should have stood on his tire and hope my pressure would make him make a mistake and try to drag race it up the road at the end. I think I would have done better. Officially I was the first loser by 9 seconds. I'm still first in points, but if I can't beat Bryce in some of these races I will be in trouble. I am so glad Bob talked me into racing. Daniel and Bob also came up and raced. Bob did well and finished 9th out of 11. He is still my hero. I hope to be as fast as he is someday. Daniel was in first place in his class for the whole race and flatted out on the downhill. He was able to change the tire and still finish in 4th. I can't wait for him to get out and win a race...

One last thing…I wrecked pretty hard on my mountain bike yesterday. I'm sore as hell, and I can hardly move my shoulder. My left side looks like hamburger, but I'm going to try and ride today at lunch. But that sounds like I’m complaining so I will shut up.