Stitch McGee

Saturday was the DV ICUP race. The rain threw off my training regimen so I did an easy 1 hour ride on Thursday and Friday.

Saturday as I was warming up I noticed my legs were feeling a little heavy. This usually means no power. I tried to get a long warm up in up to start time. At the gun the pace was really quick off the bat. Payne Cave decided to shoot off the front, with me trailing off the back. I knew things would settle down and that Little Stick would provide plenty of opportunity to move back up through the field as guys started blowing up. Halfway up little stick I found Keith sucking wind as I passed him. The decent down to Deer Crest was the usually mix of trying to get around people and keeping people off my tire. I was surprised that as we started the descent to Mitt’s house that I was still running into slow riders. The first lap was good except that KP had caught back up as we started the climb back up little stick.

Once again KP got the hole shot on me and managed to put a couple of guys between us. Now I started battling to get around guys and catch back up to him. As I started the climb out of Deer Crest toward the guard shack I could see him about 50 feet ahead and this gave me a boost to push the climb hard. As I hit the pavement at the guard shack I could now see him 100 feet ahead of me hitting the climb. I did my best to push the climb but spent way too much energy pushing a big gear to do it. As I hit the top of the climb I could hear someone coming up on me. I decided to push the descent hard since I was feeling really good about the dh on the new ride. As I was coming out of a switchback I heard the familiar voice of T-bone as he was coming up on me one switchback above. At this point all I remember is a branch catching the right side of my bike and hitting my head on something. I got up thinking that I was fine and could hold off T-bone a little longer. I started riding again hit a switch back and knew something was wrong as T-bone went by. I washed out and pulled myself up decided to check everything and gather myself. Sure enough the handlebars where off center to the right. I decided to just tough it out and limp back to the start. I was really bummed about things since I was starting to feel good on the second lap. I took things pretty cautious around Mitt’s house and as I was crossing the road I heard some riders coming. I looked back and the pack of riders I had dropped on little stick had caught me. I push really hard up the short climb and decided that it was all or nothing. In Fox style I decided to push the big ring hard all the way to the finish and managed to push the gap and hold off a rider at the finish.

After the race I noticed my chin was bleeding. I went over to the first-aid station and got it bandaged. 3 hours and two bandages later I decided to hit the after-hours care to see if it needed stitches. For the next week I get to sport two stitches on the bottom of my chin.