Bagels, Squagels, and Schmagelz. And Cyclocross

Bagels - you know them and love them
Squagels (watch it) - dont be oppressed by the tyranny of round.
Schmagel- what sheets calls a bagel for some reason. They have machines that you order from, so you dont have to actually say the word out loud. This is good, because adults shouldnt have to say words like "schmagel."

We did all three this weekend.

Friday
Leave at 7ish with Soupie and Brody for philly. We are to meet up with Miniturn and stay at his house. Unfortunately when we get there, we realized that Manyunk is the crappiest place ever, and there is LITERALLY not a usable parking spot within a 20 minute walk of his house. I call him (he was at a party until 3 am)

"Dude just park in front of a hydrant and move it at 5 am."
That was seriously the solution.

So when he comes home at 3 or whatever and I am sleeping in his bed, he wakes me up and we move the car. Miniturn's apartment was at max cap. 5 dudes in a 2 room place. Up at 7, coffee, coffee, coffee, squagel drive. Holy shit the race is 20 feet from where I busted my face on that chain!

Brett and soupie race and finshed mid pack. I raced and finished mid pack. I got dropped out of the group that was "my group." The group that if I had not raced, but instead only looked at the results I would be like "oh that is where I would have been." I got dropped from that group. UCI races pay like 40 people deep. Awesome.

Get in car. Drive to Bmore (the land of the wire). We took the stupid tunnel under the water twice because google maps was wrong. 2 bucks each way. Google - you owe me 4 dollars. Actually 1/3 of 4 dollars, and you owe Brett and Soupie the other money. I just want my money.

We eat and meet up with Jim, Pittsburgh punk guy who is also a bike racer / high energy full time spanish teacher part time bike shop guy who is just stoked all the time and now lives in Baltimore. He was once at a triathlon and randomly chatted up another dude there with lots of tattoos (if he were a Chinese teacher he could have been like "yo that Chinese character for TOFU that takes up your whole leg is pretty awesome,") and that is how he met Matt! Small world.

Asleep. Awake. Bagel. 10 minute drive to the course. The drive was long due to the fact that THEY CLOSED THE HIGHWAY FOR PEOPLE TO RIDE BIKES ON IT. I83 was closed for half of the day so pepole could ride/roller blade/jog or whatever on it. That is awesome.

Hey it is 100 degrees out, lets race cross. I remember last year hanging out with Fergie and talking about how our boogers were going to be black for a week from the dust. Same thing this year. Oh hey, they have FREE WATER, FREE VITAMIN WATER AND FREE REDBULL. I was freaking hydrated. Seriously though, the organizers of the race really have it together and put on one of the best races I have ever done.

I pitted the B race and the Elite masters race. Pitting is basically sitting in the grass and yelling. Other people seem to be better at it, and they "hold the bikes" or whatever, but I was just kind of sitting in the grass.

My race was awesome, small field, good finish, lots of people yelling. At one point I look up and see that somebody is standing there with a cardboard sign with name on it. Apparently TJ sent his protege with a sign telling me that I should be trying a lot harder (in different words).

After being dropped and catching back on, then losing the Circle a dude (after sitting on him cause I was blown a few laps before) the battle of the sub 135 lb dudes ensued as Bad Andy and I duked it for a few laps for the final podium spot. Andy was riding really really well, it was impressive. We kept trying to shake each other. I guess this is me describing a bike race, which is like... watching a bike race. Anyway, at one point I sprinted up a hill as hard as I could to try and shake him, and HE CAME AROUND ME! Gnarly. I won the sprint and stopped C3 from Domo'ing the race.

Sheetz in Breezwood = schmagel.

I never have pictures of bike races, but this is sweet. I cant believe Ben was there and just happened to take it! I am the most non aggressive dude in the race I think. I back off easily and am intimidated. Its just not worth being a jerk, or crashing. However yesterday I was coming up on this dude and he was moving over. I think it was all chance, but I let him know I was there for sure. Minturn would be proud.