 Race Report by Brandon Andrews- UGH. I should just stop there and not say anything more, but where is the fun in that. So I will relive the pains of yesterdays race. I have been traveling a lot with work the past few weeks. This past week I was in NC all week. Came back late Friday night to race on Saturday in Sun Prairie which is a local venue. I was really excited about this race since I ride by the location every week. I get there to the course and prep for my warmup/pre ride. Well thats where it all went wrong. The grass was still wet and as I went a little fast around a corner and steep downhill my rear wheel skipped out below me and I fell on my left side. My left shifter went into the grass and broke. For those of you who know me I am racing with an incredible Trek Crockett 7 bike with the new Hydraulic Sram SB700 brakes. Well the front left brake arm snapped from the piston that drives the brake fluid. So I broke my front hydraulic. I continued riding to see if i could ride with just a rear brake, didn't work. So I stopped in the Neutral Support area. The Sram guy did not know how to fix it and we decided to put me on one of the Neutral bikes. Now again for those who know me I am not tall but I normally ride a 58. He sets me up on a 52....I told him that was too small, so he put me on a 54.... By then I did not have time to rework things. My race was starting in 10 minutes. So I went from an Awesome Trek with hydraulic brakes to a Specialized that was too small had this funky hard as rock and scary painful saddle. I did like the zip 303s. :) But it ended there. I was fuming at the start of the race. Just disappointed all around. I could not get a feel for the bike and just struggled. Again not being on a bike since the last race and really no training in 2+weeks dont help. I felt like the Tommy Boy Fat Guy in small jacket skit but tall guy with small bike. And again to make maters worse. Full disclosure- I work for Trek. This is Trek territory and I am on a specialized. My bosses, co workers and friends all gave me grief. One fan, who I work with, yelled "GO BRANDON, (pause) WHAT THE CRAP ARE YOU RIDING- YOU ARE FIRED" All jokes aside, it was not fun. There was this one hill that was the run up and the only thing I wanted to be able to prove my worth in the Cyclocross scene by riding up, but without my correct bike and not being able to pre ride to find the right line. I never made it up. This haunts me like the ghost of Christmas past. The race was a disaster. I did try riding up full commitment and ended up sliding back down, see the photos below. When I did that the rear brake on the specialized broke off and so then I had no rear brake. I rode the last lap of shame with no rear brake and all ego shattered. I ended up 43rd out of 50 something I think. I hope to have my bike fixed by the next week, but since it is such a new product not many people have them. Laura's race was better, she ended up 5th out of 5. We have no idea where the other CX3 women ran off too. She had a few that were in here competition level. Maybe they will be there next week. No other AMR Riders were seen, which means we need to Get the other AMR Members in Wisconsin out on their bikes!!! -Race Report by Brandon Andrews. |
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