The Flats

It's circuit race season! Every year, HB puts on 3 circuit races, one in Silvana up in the Skagit Flats, one in Gig Harbor near AJ's house, and one in Carnation. These races are always fun, because almost everyone volunteers at them, so we usually have upwards of a dozen guys racing, instead of our usual 10. The Skagit Flats race in 2009 was the first time I felt like I was racing in the 1-2 field instead of just riding and being dumbfounded, so it holds a special place in my heart. That year, Lang even gave me a pair of elite team socks that he stole from Sam. It was a pretty touching moment.

Anyway, now it's 2011, which means there are thousands of b&w and sepia-toned photos of mundane moments during the day circulating on the internet. Let's look at what happened while we volunteered during the early races!

(Winger, sweeping the S out of a corner. Photo Ian Terry)

(Winger mit Radio. Photo wingerstudios.com)

("Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby." "Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full." Photo IT)

(Ian about to hand me what I thought was a love note as I drove past Trestle 2. It turned out to be an ad from the back pages of The Stranger. Photo IT)

(Winger's Mellow Yellow tire. "You can't beat free." Photo wingerstudios.com)

Thanks to Ian Terry and Langer for riding with me in the my support car Volvo (#swaggerwagon). In the afternoon, we got to shed our reflective vests and walkie-talkies and suit up for some h-core racing of our own. It was a weird one, with a 13-man group going on the 2nd of 8 laps containing me, Steve, Ian Terry and the newly upgraded Nick ZZZ. We all had heavy legs, but they came around in the end just in time for the last lap, when we took turns attacking, setting up the sprint perfectly for me and Steve to go 1-2. Steve pulled the ol' sit-up-when-he-was-sure-his-teammate-was-gonna-win routine, which was confusing, because he was sprinting a LOT faster than me until the last 20 meters.

(Steve, carefully dosing his effort. Photo Amara Boursaw Edwards)

(aw shet bru! that was piiiiiiifect!)

So major booyah on HB winning races. Also, as a result, I got a Cat 1 stamp on my license, so now I get to have my ass handed to me at bigger races, which should help with the issue of my rapidly-inflating ego.

Also in the world of HB, two of our fallen riders, Chris Parrish and Dan Bechtold, are well on the road to recovery and should be racing soon! Get well boys!!!!!

(Chris tucking into a recovery muffin. Muffins contain nutrients that promote the growth of new skull tissue.)

(Dan showing some hip in an obligatory collar-bone-trainer-riding photo.)

Get healthy, get fast!!!!!