Brandon hills race.

Up early for the drive with Dan and Paul out to Brandon.  I was still feeling a tiny bit congested from the never ending cold that everyone seems to have right now.  Other than that I felt ok.

We arrived early and set up base camp.  After heading out on the course and doing what we thought was a lap (kids loop) I felt ready.   We had ridden in between the course marshalls changing posts, Oops.

The race started at the crack of noon, right on time, what a treat.  I pulled out behind Greg and Dylan and sat back waiting for the onslaught of riders that would soon swallow me up.  I didnt have to wait long.  After the initial shuffle I found myself in 8 place maybe 7th.  There were a few swaps during my first two laps but pretty much status quo.  It seems that I am much faster than I thought in the technical areas and slower on the high speed areas (must be the bike .  I did my best to keep my pace low as I was hoping for attrition towards the end to move me up a couple of places.  My laps were all within 1 minute of each other, Thank you heart rate monitor.   On the fourth lap I was ready to pick up the pace considerably, my legs had other ideas.  Ron Kaulins blew by me and apparently 4 other people on the last lap yikes.  I caught up to Mr, Paul Benson and as he saw me out of the corner of his eye I could almost hear him say …I dont think so, He took off to put about a minute on me from there.

I had to work super hard to maintain my pace on the last lap but somehow held it together.  I was able to ride the entire course all day with the exeption of overshooting one of the very overshootable corners.  Great course, not for beginners.

I ended up 9th, right where I thought I should be.

At the end of it all, in the van waitng for my bloodsuger to balance out I summed it up with a question. “Is there a peice of my left ear missing guys?  ………………..Cause I,m pretty sure I just went three rounds with Mike Tyson.”

Next up, a technical buffet at Falcon.

Dave.