I couldn't decide between two pretty crazy rides I had this summer. The first was actually a uci jr stage race called Tour of the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. The second stage had just started and I was chilling in the field when suddenly a bunch of riders hit the deck in front of me, I went strait over them and head first into a mud- filled drainage ditch. Covered in mud and in a panic i scrambled out of the ditch as best i could with my bike to see the race caravan disapearing. I chased to the caravan for what felt like forever and then yo-yoed through it never really sure if i was going to make it. Once I did I wanted to get some Kom points and went for the sprint, but missed getting any. I did however end up in a break that ended up staying away to the finish, but it wasn't that easy. First, i had lost my bottles and was cramping in every possible place which made staying rolling pretty difficult and they had changed the course so we ended up being led off course, which added to the mounting odds. I ended up hanging on for seventh, not great but i was pleased. I then had to go to doping controll where i drank 6 bottles of water and 4 bottles of gatorade and then had to wait around for 2 hours untill i could produce just enough pee.
The second ride was after nationals and started in Disneyland. I flew there to spend some time with my family and had packed my bike. To re-fill the tires i only had one cartridge of co2 so it only got them up to about 40 psi each, perfect for handling in downtown LA. I also had lost the bolt that kept on derailer hanger so it was only held on by the skewer. I made the trip to the closest bike shop who let me use their pump and i got a new bolt, and then it was off to explore. I headed for the biggest mountain I could see, which i later found out was Saddleback Mountain. It started out as a nice winding road, and turned into a small roughly paved trail, which turned into a gravel road, which turned into a steep, winding pit of sand with boulders sticking out of it. No self respecting cyclist can turn around untill he reached the top and so i kept going untill i reached the cell phone towers at the top. The funny thing about cell phone towers is when your that close to them they cancel each other out when your that close so you get no service. I thought about trying to walk down but that would take to long so i just layed on the breaks and actually had to stop because my hands got too tired to hold them down. As you would've guessed I flatted to i fixed it and then flatted again so i stuffed both of the tubes under the tired and tried to keep going. This was definately bad for my wheel and sending it way out of true so i stopped. Out of nowhere a car appears so i stick out my thumb and smile. IT was a dad who had taken his kids to see the top and gave me a ride to the bottom(thank you again). He dropped me off at a church and then i called my dad to come and get me. He had to take a taxi and got lost so it costed almost 300 dollars but slipping on the floor of the huntington beach in dirty sandy spandex, infront of a bunch of cute girls was priceless.
