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I just wanted to hangout!

This weekend was Battenkill-Roubaix, which was by far the most beautiful bike race I’ve done in my entire life. Sadly, I wasn’t really able to enjoy the beauty as I spent a good portion of the race keeping my eyes on the wheel in front of me as we hit climb after climb and I didn’t want to know what was coming up.

The race was going okayish (aside from me being in damage-control mode), when I flatted at a most inopportune time (at the bottom of a very loose dirt climb, the second to last dirt section of the race) and spent the rest of my race riding alone, getting some solid pull time in. But I did finish as the last placed rider!

Oh well.

At least when I was riding on my own, I got passed by the break and lead groups of the Pro/1 race! I got to see my friend Josh Dillon (sidenote – when Googling his name to see if I spelled it right, I came across this terrifying photo. I’d bet $20 that he went straight from the finish line to a hospital to eat a baby) from Turtle Pond! But he didn’t appear to want to hang out. Because by the time I shouted his name, the group had already zipped by me.

A few minutes later, I heard a friendly voice say “Hey, Ryan!” I turned to see Robbie King sitting in the chase group, looking far chipper than anyone else he was with. It did seem like Robbie wanted to hang out…but seconds later Jake Hollenbach shouted at me a reminder that this was the Pro race. So, Robbie, sorry. We couldn’t hang out. Maybe some other time.

Chris Worden eventually came up to me, and we hung out for a bit. He pulled off and didn’t do the final seven mile loop, as he had a collegiate crit to do on Sunday.

So, there was some fun hanging out. It was also interesting that, no matter how tired we were, Josh Austin and I managed to make dick jokes during the race.

The best was that there was a bridge with a 3 ton weight limit to it…good thing Josh’s mom wasn’t riding in the follow car.

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