Bad Luck and Mount Snow

This week, my luck could have been a bit better. All of the misfortune began early Thursday morning, the day that I departed for Vermont. I should’ve set my alarm 10 minutes earlier. Because of this small mistake, my whole morning turned to disaster. I was supposed to catch the bus at 6:30 am to make it to the airport leaving me with about 2 hours to spare. I just missed the bus though, so I had to catch the next one at 7:30. I thought this would be ok; I’d just have to rush when I got the airport. I also realized that I hadn’t pick up my new student ID and bus pass that I pay for with my student fees, so I had some time and decided to go up to campus to try to get those. It was obviously way too early for anyone to be working the ID card office, so I got shut down there. I then decide to call some people, and the only one up that early was my physical/massage therapist Eric. He loaned me his bus pass. Great, I thought. When I tried to get on the bus, the driver decided to closely examine my ID and Eric’s bus pass… BUSTED!! He confiscated my both of them, and I still had to pay the $10 bus fee. When I arrived at the airport I had to make up a story that Eric was an old man and that it would be hard for him to make it to the bus station to reclaim his ID. It worked, and I got it back… That was a relief; I thought my troubles were over…. Nope. When I tried to check my bags in, I was told that I was too late (I was still 40 minutes away from departure). The check-in lady told me that I could take all my bags as carry-on, so I tried to do that. Bad idea. As a cyclist, I carry a lot of things with me that security considers weapons. Before I made it through security, I was told that I could only have two carry-on bags. So then I had to try to combine all of my belongings into two bags… I did it, but those bags were so full they were about to explode. Going through security, I had to empty out all of my stuff. They confiscated my Crank Brothers multi-tool, the pocket knife I keep on my keychain, and the most threatening to them, my CO2 cartridge. The CO2 cartridge was the final cause of my missing the flight. Because of the CO2, I had to be escorted to a room and wait for about 10 minutes while they filled out paperwork, and I had to sign a few documents. Now I’m on record as a person who has brought weapons into the airport, and probably a suspected terrorist. Next I had to go back and change my flight. I was very nearly screwed. The Lady at check in told me that since I booked my flight through Hotwire.com, I would have to pay $300 to change my flight. I gave her some of the most intense puppy-dog eyes I’ve ever had to, anymore and there would be tears coming down my face. So, she felt sorry for me, pulled some strings, and allowed me to change my flight, but for $100. That still sucked, but I wouldn’t have even gone if I had to pay $300. Well, I was able to change to a flight that still put me in Albany at the same time as before.

On to the race recaps. I felt amazing in the XC. Finishing up lap two of the XC I was sitting around 15th place and feeling great. Unfortunately, my rear tire flatted. I tried to fill it with my C02, hoping that my Stan’s would seal, but that was a waste of time, and my C02. I then had to wait of for someone to toss me a C02, and eventually I got one. I put in a tube and got it going again, but I had easily lost about 10 minutes by then. After all this, I was out for blood, and still felt crazy fast. I was passing people back left and right, and eventually moved back up to around the top 25 by the end of the last lap, and then the second flat happened. Again, I had to beg racers to hook me up with a tube and C02. I finally got the goods, and fixed it, but lost about another 6-8 minutes in the whole process. I felt the best that I have felt all year, but good fortune was not on my side. At least I got the feeling back that I’ve been missing all season and I think I’ll be kicking ass for the rest of the year. No one else from Colorado had exceptional finishes… the east coast is a different world than the west. Ross Schnell was up there with me, but he also double flatted, Hagman was riding strong, but bonked hard on the last lap, and Ranno (Diesel) broke his chain (what’s new).

The STXC went alright, I got 19th, Cody (my teammate) got 15th, and Shriver (My other teammate) got 12th, his best STXC finish.

Tomorrow, I’m flying back and getting back into the swing of school… not to pumped about that. I am looking forward to racing Keystone next weekend, and hopefully can be riding at the same level that I had this weekend.

Until next time.