The old man was recruited back to a 12 hour team, again with the "don't expect to win" invitation. A tough one for me. But my friends wanted to do it and that's what friends are for.

Besides if you read this stuff,look what they've done for me.

So Venus says" You're doing a better job of keeping the competitive thing in check. Just go and have fun. OK,cool. I'll try. I'm just the hired gun. They'll take care of the details.

Race day comes and it's raining. RAINING HARD. I'm not relishing 12 hrs of rain. So I go to Bobbers' to carpool and fall asleep on the couch. A prime example of how to motivate your team.

Bobber and Dawn are psyched for this. Me, I'm barely moving. Elliot will meet us a for a pre-ride.

We drive down in the rain. I tune in some old Chicago on the Ipod. The rain lessens. I'm into the tunes. Park,set up camp. Suit up. Thirty feet out on the bike and it washes over me. I love riding my bike. I'm checking lines on the single track. Figuring where to kill it and where to back off a little. Final determination. Nail the hills. Work the sections that don't flow and rip the double.

With the advent of no Le Mans start,I'm drafted into the start. They decided my aggression would be a good thing on the opener. Good to see Jeff and Katina there. It's a road start. Wouldn't you know it. The single speed 29'ers are setting the pace. One guy passes us and takes the lead. I'm not worried. I rock two laps and have the third fastest lap of the day. Each team mate takes their turn and back out I go. I'm letting the bike run and BAM. The GD Stan's stuff fails me again. I air it up. Phhht Phhht it goes trying to seal up. It won't do it. Stop. Tear it apart and put a tube in. Back in the team sees grumpy old man. The rotation continues. I had a bad spell and actually took a nap. Back out. Hammering the hill on the half way point. SNAP goes the chain. OK I can fix it. No go. The chain tool breaks too. Bad things happen in threes,right?

( Me I'm seeing ths as losing our lead and letting the team down)I run back to the start. Yell to Bob get the other bike. I'm and frantic ball of energy. They bring the bike up and the officials decide I can start where I left off. Cool. Now I'm on the Hooligan 26 in wheels. I adapt fast. and come in. Venus is saying take a break,she'll go out. OK I relent. Elliot is ready to do the rain lap.

The Ommegangsters are rallying. I head back out for a rain lap too. Bobber suits up in case I'm to whipped to do the double. Turns out I don't have too. Their last rider went on course at 7:07. We're done we won. So both Elliot and Bobber won their first mountain bike race. Very cool. Our awards were a carved stone. The promoters ahd a lot of food. We had a lot of beer. The band was rocking. We started with a Witte. Then Elliot brought out the West Vlanderen gold. This is rated the best beer in the world. We poured and let it breath while having a Trappist Rouqefort. The had quite a raisin caramel taste. After a few more. Elliot and I headed up to hear the band. Everyone was rocking we passed out some Omme to the band members. The passed out percussion instruments and got the crowd involved. Very cool. Then we came back and dragged Bobber out for more drinking. Finally we crawled into Chez Bresee and called it a night.\

In the end a great weekend. Thanks. Enjoyed it. OGQ