On Wednesday when we were visiting our new "headquarters" for work, we found out that there was a local race happening this Saturday---less than 5 miles away from home! Sweet! We decided to make it a "work event" and get some Ridley publicity at the same time. Mike is overseeing the Team bike /custom program and a local (collegiate series with a USCF event included) race seemed an appropriate way to kick things off.
Mike's new ride is still not built, but luckily he can ride the same size as our new boss, Lance, and so he was good to go with a sweet Ridley bike to ride. Since the focus for this weekend event was the collegiate series, the Pro 1/2 race was the first race off---an 8am start. The field was mostly local Reno/Wheelman, but there was also a familiar looking Discovery Team rider, Mike's old team mate from his Webcor days, Jeff Angerman. Cool.
Rules read and they were off around a hilly 1.7 mile loop around the University of Nevada, Reno, campus. The start/finish was up at the top of a long, seemingly innocent, but in fact a leg-breaker (lung breaker to be more exact) climb. Mike and Jeff shared winning primes and Mike ended up winning a 5 gallon keg of locally brewed beer, amongst his other prizes...including a UNR Rugby shirt for me! He also rode in for a solo win---Taylor's still got it---even for an old guy!
Speaking of "old guys", Mike decided to par-take in the Pro 1/2 Masters race. Why not? This was a much bigger field, including Angerman and another Disco teammate---plus a plethora of Reno Wheelman riders. This local club (Reno Wheelman) has experienced a rejuvenation of the sport (I imagine Jeff Angerman who is a Sports Medical Doctor and key sponsor for the race team has something to do with this.) The club has approximately 130 members, and the race team has about 40 members.
The first few laps and the field was pretty much together---but a decisive break formed with some strong riders (including Taylor and Angerman and maybe 3 other guys) with a pretty strong chase. The last eight laps though were like a beautiful team time trial with Jeff and Mike taking turns on the front and smoking the field---and lapping the chase group. After such a team like effort, no one felt like outsprinting the other for the finish and they slowed down and rode across the finish line side by side together---complete with a sportsmanlike handshake! It was awesome.
And given the Belgian flavor of our bikes---Lance, our fearless leader, showed up with a few big bottles of Chimay---the recovery drink of choice for all Belgian bike racers and Belgian bike race lovers! And Mike really loved riding this new bike---can't believe how light a bike in his size is---
Afterwards, Mike and I came back to our new home and took the Scrapper for a walk along the hilly trails right in our backyard, marveling at our spectacular views of the Sierra Nevada's.
I think we might just might have found our niche!
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