As the Pedals Turn… MS Grand Prix and Crash Update
19th April 2008
Since Brian’s swamped with school, other work and cycling, I’m taking it upon myself to chronicle his cycling endeavors with a new category on our blog. Welcome to "As the Pedals Turn"!
You might or might not remember that in his last race 2 weeks ago, he crashed hard, taking out a teammate and 13 other people. We were hoping his bike could be relatively easily fixed. And it can be fixed… or rather, replaced. Upon closer inspection, the bike shop found that the frame was cracked in 3 places, and it needs to be replaced. That’s a $$$$ fix for his high-end bike, this snazzy yellow Trek Madone 5.5 Pro. *sigh* They’re going to order the new frame which will hopefully be in soon, and let him pay it off with the store credit he earns for top places in races through the rest of the season. Whew. That’s a big chunk of change that won’t land on our credit card, thankfully. For now, though, he’s racing on his old Trek, which we had hoped to sell, but now we’re VERY glad we hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Oh, and in case anyone is interested, it’s for sale. We’ll cut you a good deal, as long as you don’t ask how many miles are on it. 🙂 I think maybe it would be fun to put a little hanging "For Sale" sign on it while he’s riding… when was the last time you saw that?
So this weekend, he’s in Brookhaven, MS for the Mississippi Grand Prix. This was a race he did really well at last year. It’s a stage race, like the Tour de France, which means they’ll race 4 separate races (a criterium, a road race, a time trial, and a circuit race) and the times will be combined for a cumulative overall placing. Each race has prize $$$, but there’s also a hefty $$$$ for the overall General Classification (or GC). There’s also a very big prize ($5000) for the top team, using their best 5 riders’ placings.
Unfortunately for Brian, the criterium last night was canceled due to bad weather (I feel like he might have done really well in it… oh well, onto the next race!) Today’s road race was tough – 80 guys on a narrow, fast race course with all kinds of attacks. Brian worked hard to try to be in several of the breaks, but he missed going with the break that finally stayed away to win. He finished in the pack. This afternoon is the time trial, which is not his specialty. Tomorrow, hopefully, though he can lay it all out and wrap up the weekend with a good placing (and maybe a prime or 2?) in the circuit race.
I’ll keep you updated!
April 20th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
how about a sign on the back!!
April 21st, 2008 at 10:34 am
The circuit race went well and I was able to stay at the front of the group for the whole race. The big teams from Texas hogged the front for the last few laps, but I I was still able to squeeze into the mix for 10th. I am hoping to repeat that performance this weekend at Twilight where 10th place will probably pay several hundred dollars. At this race in Mississippi, 10th place was only worth $30 — I guess it’s better than nothing!