On the 12th day of Superweek my road bike gave to me

A goddamned creaky drivetrain.

Holy Hill. More like Holy Shit.

When the the bike shop says get a new chain *before* your next race, you should believe them, especially when it has a variety of climbs every lap. With my non-access to hills like this, I would have been lucky to stay in the mix, but it would have required split-second shifting. Not two dropped chains, dozens of skipped shifts, and general redlining to make up for getting caught out of gear every 3-4 minutes. Excuses, excuses. I have little to report, as I was in trauma. A couple long easy hills, a couple short hard ones, a long medium and a long hard one, 5 laps. It would have been fun to race if I had a working drivetrain and, uh, hills to practice on within 50 miles of my life.

On the plus side, it turned into a killer climbing workout, and my legs are aching in ways they haven't for years. If I could only do this every week or two without driving out of state, I might be a decent road racer. Another highlight was drinking beer with the team on the hood of the Cuttin' Cruiser after the Pro rollout. Ice cream truck music, a fog horn, and Public Enemy: the Rock Racing Escalade has nothing on it. It will be a miracle if they ever allow us back in Wisconsin again. The team didn't have the strongest day (12th and 14th, earned some gas money), but you gotta have some fun somehow. Thank god half the State Police were tied up marshaling the course.