Wheel of Fortune

It's been a while. I love typing up entries, but I seem to forget about the blog when work (yes, full time work Doug), riding and some social events consume my daylight. Or, on worse occasions, work even consumes the lack of light during the evening hours (i.e. the last two nights).

Much has happened over the past month. Lots of track racing and a few road races have been the highlights. One of the oddest things that happened, however, occurred when Zack, Cat and I car pooled up to Rockford. Let me preface the story by saying I now have an interest in physics.

As we we sped west on 96, Zack suddenly pulled over informing me that my wheel gracefully rolled off of the roof, bounced down the free way and hopped over the front of a car moving at 80 mph, all while maintaining an upright roll. I was slightly perturbed but couldn't help but crack a smile. 'Are you serious?' 'Why my wheel?' Maybe it was bad karma for showing up 45 minutes late to the Best Buy in Jackson where we had planned to meet.

We reversed down the side of the freeway in the Honda element to the sound of the decreasing pitch of barring horns. When we decided to jump out and cross the freeway, I held little hope of finding the wheel. At that point, actually, I just wanted to get to Rockford to race; what's another casualty to cycling, I spend most my money repairing and maintaining my bikes as it is. Of course I didn't know about the broken wheel to come during the International Three Day Race-Day 1...

Zack and I marched down the side of the freeway in staggered lines in attempts to scan everything. It looked as if we were scanning the fields of a war torn land with military precision. After passing Zack, I looked back to see the small speck of a car a mile up the road. In a last hope effort, I veered deeper into the weeds. Waist high thorns tore into my hairless legs adding variety to the scatter of little cuts brought about by my aggressive pre-race shaving. An image of fit, bare-cycling legs with bubbly red lesions popped into my head as I quickly remembered the shape of the poison ivy leaf. Before I could go any further into the brush, I thankfully saw Cat waiving to Zack and I knew it was all over.

After spinning the perfectly true, $150 neuvation wheel, I named it my lucky wheel. It turned out to maintain an upright spin through Rockford just as it did on the freeway. It carried me up the little hill in a break away of four. It even spun underneath my jump around the last corner, providing me with a second place finish. Next time we'll play it smart and not lead out the sprint.

If only my front track wheel still spun true. It looks like it will represent the international three day as a memento in my room.