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This weekend involved a bunch of racing. First there was the Tree Farm Relay on Saturday, then today (Sunday) was the annual Stony Creek Time Trial put on by Tailwind Racing, LLC..
The Tree Farm Relay was wonderful as always, with sunny, humid weather. While it was hot and sticky it was much nicer than the mud at last year’s race. Our team, the East Side Step Children, comprised of Erick Mile, Nick Shue, Erick Silvassy, and I came in 19th (out of 54), which wasn’t too bad. We would have been a good bit higher up the list, but when receiving a shot of liquor (from a syringe) at The Crater a whole bunch went up my nose and in my eye, forcing me to spend a few minutes cleaning my nose, eyes, and glasses before continuing. If we hadn’t lost those 3-4 minutes we would have been up a few more places. Not that it matters, after all… It’s the Tree Farm Relay which is more about having fun and riding than racing.
In the raffle at the end of the race my number was drawn, and I chose the bar-mount squeaky cow horn seen above fitted to my old Specialized which is now serving as a commuter / errand / path bike.
This was my first time doing the Stony Creek Time Trial, and while I came in nearly last in my category (still waiting for the results to be posted) I still had fun. I woke this morning a bit after 9am and realized that if I made it to Stony Creek by 10:20am I’d be able to register for the Sport Men 30-34 class, so I hurriedly got ready and went. This was definitely not my fastest ride of the course, which I attribute to it being hot, my being tired, and generally not being prepared. On the upside, all the hard/tedious climbing in the race is at the beginning, which made for a rather pleasant route to ride.
In the past I’d been particularly hesitant to do this race because of two river crossings which were reported to result in frequent crashes and be best done via a dismount and slog through the water, but this year they were said to be shallow enough to be ridable. I found this to be the case and was able to ride through both without issue. While my feet did get soaked, the cool water on my legs felt good and it was no worse than unexpected large puddles during wet springtime riding. If the weather is similar next year I’ll probably do this race again, although hopefully I’ll do better then.