Moronacity Cycling Journal » Racing
Attempting to Miss the Yankee Springs Time Trial
By Diane UrsuYesterday was the first Championship Point Series race for the MMBA. I signed up on Friday after arranging a carpool. My stuff was packed and ready to go. The morning went flawlessly. I actually arrived to my carpool location on time and moved everything over to Jon’s vehicle. Jon is a Mid-State MMBA person who is starting to witness some of the issues I am beginning to have with races. For example, at the Barry Roubaix, I forgot to bring my pedals.
Jon and I got started on the road to Yankee Springs. As he drove, I got on the Trek web site and tried to build the most expensive road bike, kind of at his suggestion. I ended up creating a road bike that was over $10,000. The LiveStrong paint job cost extra, of course.
We arrived at Yankee and got our race stuff. I was pretty calm and managed not to become a bundle of nerves. Everything went so well! …until I changed my clothes and realized that I left my gloves in my truck. 
Oh, well. I could ride without gloves. It wouldn’t be the first time and it probably won’t be the last. I put on my shoes and went to grab my helmet and… My helmet!! Where the hell is it?! Grr. I left that in my truck, too. In fact, the gloves were sitting in the helmet.
Suddenly, the lady who was parked next to us asked me when I was racing. I got some sort of weird look on my face while I searched for the right words and finally said something like, “I’m supposed to race in 10 minutes, but I don’t think that is going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“I left my helmet at my friend’s house.”
She felt badly for me and after a couple of minutes said, “You could probably use my husband’s helmet. He’s not racing. He’s just going to ride after the race.”
Thank you, dear, sweet angel. She called her husband and he came back to the vehicle to unlock it so I could borrow his helmet. Now, he has a large head while I have a small head. I knew I could make this work. I lifted my pony tail higher, but the helmet was still a little loose. I realized that I brought a sweat band, so I put that on. Voila! The helmet fit great.
I managed to get to the time trial start in the nick of time. Whew!
How does one forget their pedals…I mean…aren’t they like attached to the bike?
Isn’t that scenario right out of pre-race nightmares? Like showing up for work without clothes etc?
Ali – that’s my book.
Neil – I was between bikes. My frame was broken on my race bike, so I put the clipless pedals on my non-race bike. When I got the frame fixed, I forgot to transfer the pedals over.
I just finished my Madone 6.9 and it only came to $12,400, I am pretty sure I build a more expensive one before.
Race bike broken again? Is it a Jamis?
Nope. The race bike broke once – last October – and didn’t get fixed until the Barry Roubaix.