No Koppenberg for You!

I put my faith in promoters, officials, and others when it comes to holding a race or postponing it. Most of the time they make the right decision and if something seems questionable you can probably find an explanation linked to money. It was cold, wet, and relatively miserable Sunday morning when I took Dempsey out for his morning walk and I won't lie . . . I wasn't really looking forward to an "epic" race, created by conditions. I was nowhere near the course but here are a couple pictures of a bike that was.


The decision hit the ACA website at 8:07, just about the time I was on my second cup of coffee. I called the troops to get plan B into action, Dim Sum at Super Star Asian. Kevin, Matt, Pinkerton, Sara, Kendall, Neven, Deb, Doug, Trina, and Ivy met over at SSA for round after round of dumplings, buns, and other offerings we couldn't always identify, nor could the wait staff clarify in English. There were custardy things, shrimpy things, veggie things, chicken feet (which we politely declined) most of which were delicious, all of which were cheap. We were finishing up as others were just getting started and by noon, there were people hanging out the door waiting for a seat.

Post Dim Sum, Matt, Jafar, Patrick and I rode down to Chatfield to meet up with Mike, Dennis, and others for a little climbing. I figured I might as well treat it like race day still and hang on to Mike's wheel as long as possible heading up High Grade.
Sure they look calm, peaceful and friendly all smurfed up in their new kits, but Mike and Dennis are otherworldly when it comes to climbing. The pace was innocent enough as we rolled out from Mike's house. It felt fast going up Deer Creek and then even faster going up High Grade. I backed off when we hit the first of the switchbacks and tried to recover. I got them back in sight at the shop at Critchell and finally caught them when the eased up towards the top. Based on the times showing on the computer when we left the house and when we got to the top it took us about 55 minutes to get to the top, my previous best was 58 minutes.

I'm sure racing would have been tougher, but fighting to keep shrimp dumplings down and the pace up made for a good day on the bike.