PADDEN MOUNTAIN PEDAL 2009

Team Unattacked wuz representin' at Sunday's Padden Mountain Pedal as Scott "T.C." Young and I raced in our respective Beginner races. For Strongman Scott it was only his fourth mountain bike ride ever (not race), but that mattered not as all as he went on to win the 35-44 race pretty much soloing it from lap one. Way to go, Scott. (That's him below.)

I was going well in my 45-plus race, trading the lead with single-speeder Erik Evanson when my chain snapped, at which point many and sundry curse words flew from my lips. I finished lap 2 running and coasting when I could. Near the start/finish area, a Great, not Good, Samaritan helped me fix (actually, he fixed it completely himself ) my chain and got me back on the bike again. I ended up finishing 6th. Erik went on to win--great job, man!

Great Samaritan, sorry I don't remember your name (I was a bit flustered at the time), but if you read this, you da' man! Thanks.

As bummed as I was to break my chain I'm just glad it didn't happen Thursday when I was high in the Central Cascades riding the Devil's Gulch Trail.

In other news, I've been catching some grief lately for racing in the Beginner division this season. My reasoning has been thus: I did my first mountain bike race ever a little more than three months ago so wouldn't that make me a beginner? Also, I thought Beginner corresponded to being a Cat 5 road racer which is what everybody starts out as. But today, a race director of many other local events told me that if he were directing the race he'd have never let me race Beginner, and that the division was for people who've basically never ridden a bike before. Not sure how accurate that is, and I certainly don't want to be a sandbagger so ... hmm, not sure what I'll do for Roslyn. Pretty sure I'll be there; I've had a great time racing the Indie Series so far!