1. I went uphill faster than most people.
Now that the Tuesday Night Crits are over, Boise's unofficial World Championships are the Tuesday Night Half Bogus. There's no entry fee, numbers, officials, or an actual start time. People show up around 6:00, chat in the shade for a while, then go climb the hill. Normally, a half-Bogus is not my kind of hill. It's a long, gradual half hour of pain. But, I'm riding stronger than usual right now and everybody else is tired of racing. The combination of those two things led to me coming in 2nd behind Sam Johnson. He is a professional who is both on good form and not tired of racing, so he went way faster than everybody.
2. We started moving into the Cycle Learning Center.
There's about to be a bike shop on campus! We're buying stuff like crazy and starting to arrange stuff in the shop. It's going to be super cool! The Grand Opening is August 23rd from 11:00-1:00, so be there.
3. I hit a goat.
Saturday was the State Championship Road Race. I wanted to do well in this so that I could get my upgrade to Cat. 2 and do two crits on Sunday. I felt good and was climbing pretty well all day, then the goats came. Apparently, to prove that this was the Idaho State Championship and not some yuppie, urban state, the one of the citizens of Sagebrushland (the area of nothingness between Emmett and Middleton) decided to take his tribe of goats down the race course. By the way, tribe is the collective name for goats. My first thought upon seeing this was "please be fainting goats!" Despite how funny that would have been, Jethro the Goat Herder left them at home. I navigated 45 of his 50 favorite goats with no problem, then I hit goat #46. He got spooked and ran in front of me. Luckily, I had slowed down to dodge the rest of the tribe and unclipped and was fine. When I put my foot down, I accidentally caught the startled goat between my leg and bike. Since my bike rarely the cleanest in the peloton, there is now a goat running around Sagebrushland with a 53 tooth, Ultegra chainring branded on it.
4. I got a flat tire.
It's common knowledge that goatheads cause flat tires. What most people never learn is that the entire goat can take out a tube. I hit a goat in the belly, then got a flat a few miles later. Until I see a counterexample, I'm going to stick to my theory that the goat caused the flat. As far as I know, there is a perfect correlation between hitting goats and getting flats. Like the Chicago Cubs, the Curse of the Billy Goat extended to my whole team. Charles double-flatted about 100 yards before I did. The wheel car was back dealing with him, leaving me with no wheels. The official's car went up to the field and got Nate to come back with his front wheel. We swapped out and I went to chase. Nate and Charles believed that there weren't any wheels in the car, so they swapped tubes out on the course then rode back to the start. The flat happened about two miles before the major climb of the race where everybody went really fast, so I never caught back on.
5. I went to Costco.
It was awesome. My parents got me a lot of food. Yay for food!
6. I won a race.
Unlike the Chicago Cubs, we won a championship in less than 102 years. However, Team Bobs-Bicycles.com will likely never win a World Series. Sunday was the State Championship Criterium. It was a course with a bunch of corners and no long straightaways and I felt good about a break taking it. So I attacked early, and stayed within bridging distance for a couple laps. Nobody bridged, and I went back. Then some people attacked and everybody followed and I got shuffled. I worked my way back up toward the front and found that I had some momentum and decided to just let it roll and went off the front by myself again. Again, I rode solo but kept the gap close enough to entice somebody to come across. Sean O'Shea was the man to do it. He came up and we were gone. He was a Masters racer and I was a 3, so as long as we stayed away we were both State Champions. We worked together, then I sprinted at the end and he didn't. I threw my hands up and it was fun. I thought about asking for the upgrade between races and going again, but I'd had enough fun for the day. The team handled things okay without me, finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th, and 9th. There were 12 starters, 5 of them weren't Bob's racers.
