Friday, Saturday, Sunday

I've fallen behind. Here's the update:

Rolling my own while
waiting to beat the kids.
(photo: Dave Sawatzky)
 

Sunday (Oct 17) was Southern Cross day. It was grand. It was fun. It was hard. It was frustrating. I'd like to do it again.

It started out with the competition being a little, well, little. They let me be the pace car for the kids. Some called it a good warm-up, some thought it was my underhanded attempt at getting onto the podium. Suffice it to say, that as far as results were concerned, it was the best part of the day. And my chain didn't come off once. Even though earlier in the day, on a practice run, it did come off, and I bent it (yes, I bent the chain) beyond repair. So I ran over to Back Alley (Bruce keeping it conveniently open on the Lord's day) and we put on a new chain, but we put it on a little loose. It seemed fine at the time, but would prove otherwise later.

Labouring after a climb.
(photo: Dave Sawatzky)

In fact, the chain was at least three links too long. So, while I felt great riding, and really liked the course, the chain came off about six times over the course of the 30 minute, plus one lap, race (4 laps total, the course was pretty long). To be fair, I was a little too aggressive in an attempted pass on a downhill, on the first lap (trying to work my way up through the pack) and ended up flipping my ass into the air and then landing sideways across the track. I got out of the way as quickly as I could, put the chain back on, and then tried to catch up. Which I think I could have done, except for my chain. I'll spare you the details. It smacks a little of blame shifting. I should have seen that it was too loose from the beginning. I should have done another practice lap, during which it would have come off, which would have cued me in to the problem. I should have stopped in the pits to shorten the chain. I did none of those things. I soldiered on and cursed wildly every time it came off (most often on the bumpy descents). So it goes indeed. I learned a lot about dismounting technique and carrying the bike and finished in the middle of the pack, again.

The day after, despite the road rash (from the crash - I banged up the left knee, which was the knee I broke a few years ago) I feel like I want to race again! But I also feel like it would be good to upgrade equipment. All in all it was a great time.

Saturday (Oct 16) I spent the day recovering from a great night catching up with Sean Braun. By late morning I was good to go, so I fired up the chainsaw and set about taking down a maple that had half blown over in a storm. Once I'd sawed through it almost completely, I couldn't push it over. So pulled it down with the truck. What would we do without the truck?!

We went into the city for a Polish supper and photographic extravaganza at Ron and Sandi's. Poland it a stunning part of the world! Green rolling hills and great architecture.

Friday (Oct 15) evening Sean Braun came down and we celebrated his success in securing a couple of grants to work on his Masters in English. It was a good late night around the fire!