Jansen and his rubber chicken riding on Trev's double decker.
Me and my shaggy haired brother on the podium.I raced in the junior 14 and under category. The race is run by actual age, not the NORBA race age. The race started on a killer hill and it was hard to get going on a single speed. Anyway, it was just Jansen and I. We are at about the same level, despite the fact he’s only 11. But he’s just as tall as me. “the result of steroids and growth hormones in our meat” is what I call it. We started pretty fast, spinning away on our not-so-big gears.
The Yargo trail is really twisty, full of 90 degree turns and even more pinhair turns.
You can’t go very fast. I ran off the trail for that reason, and Jansen, who had been hugging my wheel for a while, slowed up, and then sped off. I trailed him, and caught up to him, then passed him. At this part in the course, we came to the “Three Stooges”, which are 3 short, 2 foot “woop-dee-doos” that are kind of hard to get up. Also, they had recently done a controlled burn in this area , resulting in charred, black ground on both sides on the trail. With clouds of smoke passing the trail every few feet, it was both really pretty, and really eerie at the same time. It was here, a while into the trail, that I ran off again, and Jansen zipped in front of me. Man, jumped on the bike and flew to try to catch up........ 5 minutes after that, WHAM! I endoed. I don’t remember how, but I stood up, covered in dirt, and I had a pretty bad head ache. The head ache went away soon enough, but by then, Jansen was gone. Not only that, but my handle bars were bent at an interesting angle. So I went on, at a bit more cautious pace this time, trying to steer at an unusual angle. It took some concentration. I actually came in fairly close to Jansen, and still covered in dirt too.
I took a ton of pictures and fed the racers water during the rest of the day. My family promotes this race so I stayed pretty busy all weekend, but the weather was great and the course was fun. On Saturday, before the short track race, two friends of mine had a special race. One was on a double decker bike and one was on a pink, little girl's bike. It was hilarious and put us all in a good mood. Racing is about cycling, but also about hanging out with your friends on the weekend and this one was a blast.
Everett Lindner
