Actual photographic proof that I tried to race my MTB, as I said, I tried. Made a last minute decision to head out to the race Saturday morning and then paid the price for not being prepared. I guess you can't pull the bike off the hook in the garage and race it after 3 months of inactivity. Oh well, a cut sidewall and a dried up stans sealalnt will end your day everytime.

In the end it really ended up to be a pretty good day, Mathgeek and Curly came with me and we got to check out Wyandotte County Lake Park. It's a really cool park with good roads and trails. There is a big lake and and I'm glad they had the race there. The Colivita guys did a great job designing the course and it would of been fun to go the distance in the race.

A big bummer with having to pull out of the race is that I still had to complete my workout. By time we got done with our errands it was 1pm and hot out. Got it done and today was more of the same. On the ride today I pretty much planned my 4 hr ride around places I knew I could get water every 10-15 miles. In the end I had 8 bottle refills and 2 Gatorades, and a coke on todays ride. All I know is that it's not getting any cooler and Polar Insulated Bottles are a godsend.

Tour of Lawrence, Day 3 Crit

The last day of the Tour of Lawrence was the Downtown Criterium. This race is usually pretty exciting and this year was no exception. There were a number of good teams and solo riders that made the race fast. As far as teams go Mercy had the most riders at 9 while all the other teams had 4 or 5 riders. With that in mind our plan was to try and get a break established with at lest a few of our riders in it. The rest of the riders would work to keep the break away and wait for the finish.

After a fast start that's exactly what happend. A break of 10 got away with 4 Mercy riders in it and it was time to go to work. Most of the teams were represented in the break and it was looking good for our guys until about 5 laps to go. It was then that teh Elbows guys attacked the break and split them up. At the same time Brad Huff from Jelly Belly got some help in the chase group and started pulling the remains of the break back. At 3 to go there was a group of 3 away with Dylan in it and then there was a big crash on the back strech that took out half the field. From then on it was chaos to the finish. Whatever hope we had for a leadout couldnt get organized and ended up with 2 guys in the top 10. Not too shabby but we were hoping for better.

Pretty fast group of guys

Adam giving a little bit back by working the kids race with the team

Jobro at Boy Scout camp. I was all stressed out about him at camp with a broken arm and 100 degree temps. From what I hear he's doing fine and I don't have to worry.

Tour of Lawrence, KU Circuit Race

Where to start on this one......... I guess it was just going to be one of those days. One where nothing goes quite how you planned and in the end you just should of stayed home. One of this weekends issues is that I was running solo with a 10 year old. I'm not complaining, it's part of being a dad. But I am a true worrier and with Curley it's even worse. Friday night at the street sprints Devon and the crew at One-2-Go Event Services let Curly hang out in the trailer with them so it wasn't too stressfull. Yesterday was a totally different situation. It was all hands on deck situation with the heat and long circuit race so the feed zone was going to be a busy place. I was going to have to put my trust in people to keep an eye on him while I race but then they also have to pay attention to the race and be ready to hand up bottles. It's not that I don't trust my friends but the stress of worrying about what could happen kills me.

So like in the street sprints I left Curly and rode to the start line with no warm up at all. We got lined up and the first lap was pretty hard. I was hurting right off the bat but was hoping the pace would slow a bit and my legs would come around. No such luck, by the second lap I wa hanging onto the back of the field. On the 3rd lap I slammed into one of the many potholes on the course and my bars slipped down. I must of had all my weight on the front brake lever because it rotated in at the same time and applied the front brake. By the time I smacked it with my hand and moved it back I was off the back of the field. Oh well, I wasn't going to last much longer anyway.

As a team we had a ok race. The guys rode hard and our support crew was awesome. In the end we got 7th,9th,15th,16th.

Yea, it was that hard!

Heading for the start

Colton with eventual winner Sean Sullivan(Elbowz)

Today is the final day of the Tour of Lawrence with the downtown crit. Still debating weather I want to race or not. It's going to be a game time decision.

Photos: Elizabeth Rangle