Riding at Wakefield

Well, it has been quite a while since we have blogged. We have been quite busy since I arrived home from Iraq. We have been catching up on tons of stuff and and trying to do stuff with my brother who is leaving soon for a few years. In all this madness I have gotten back to racing at Wakefield Park on Wednesday nights. Last year Mike Bletzacker mentioned that he wanted to do these races and I thought that it sounded really fun. So Mike, Greg and I signed up for the races last year. Mike was in my category then (35+ Masters) but this year he has moved up and only has to do two laps. I was a lot of fun. we have had two races this year and the weather has been perfect. Mike starts two minutes after me but on the first race day he still managed to catch and pass me before he finished his second lap. Well, I was not expecting too much even on my new Ellsworth Epiphany. I have not ridden a bike more than a handful of times since the end of the races last year (not much riding available in Iraq). I still had a pretty good race thank in good part to my new bike. It is really smooth on the rail and uses carbon fiber in key places to help deliver more energy to pedaling. I did much better in the second race this past week though and even had one lap of about 4 miles in under 18 minutes.  My overall time according to my timer was 57 minutes. That is much faster than I did last year. Here are some pics from the first day of races. The three photos in the middle are by photographer Gary Ryan who covers many of the races. I am planning on getting one nice print from one of the races.

Mike and I pre-race.

A potentially scary jump that I slow down to ride.

Me getting a little out of control and looking a little SCARED!

Mike doing it right.

Mike and I with Craig (a friend from biking) waiting for the race results.