The Road Less Traveled

I did Donny’s Cranksgiving race in Des Moines today. It was a fun race/ride with huge amounts of schwag.

I had done a little map studying the night before, to get a feel for the terrain. I was mostly unfamiliar with that part of Des Moines, so I didn’t know what to expect. My map work had shown a wealth of convenience stores to the North and East of the Mars Café. When Donny handed out maps in the pre-race meeting, his map had most stores as South and West of the Mars Café. Hmm. Go with the plan? My general inclination is to zig when most other people zag, and to the travel the road less traveled. I stuck with my plan, and got my wish.

I made several tactical blunders before/leading up to the race. The first was bringing my Rig in its wounded state (seized bottom bracket). I was stuck with 32x16 gearing, and I was slow. The second blunder was to zig when everyone (I mean everyone) else was zagging. They can’t all be wrong. Most all of them LIVE IN THIS TOWN. I don’t.

I went east at the start when most went west. I was going to stop at the first convenience store, but after waiting for traffic, there was at least ten people waiting with me. So I continued east on University with almost no one following. I just caught a glimpse of Squirrel heading south on a side street. I briefly debated following him, as he is the best alley cat rider I know, but I stuck to the plan. It was to be my final tactical blunder of the day. After that, I was doomed to a slow finish, and an interesting ride. I did see a part of Des Moines that I don’t normally see. At least I lived through it. If you are going to make these kind of mistakes, do it in the offseason!

At the awards ceremony, I hung out with some cool people, had a good time, and enjoyed the day. Oh, and I didn’t win the Surly Steamroller frame. That was a relief. I was afraid that my winning ways would become a curse.

I’m going to Seven Oaks tomorrow to ride a few laps if anybody is interested. Chuck says the trails are in perfect condition.