Tuesday, July 22, 2008

and the Poor Dumb Bastard award for the day goes to...

John-Lee Augustyn! After taking the 'Souvenir Henri Desgrange' for the highest climb in the tour, he promptly fell off the bike on one of the turns on the descent. He slid down some, but the bike tumbled way down the mountain. It's one of those classic 'and a few seconds more' type situations you see after someone achieves something of note. My personal version which helped me get my nickname(and the name of this blog) was at a cyclocross race near Philly. After starting at the back of the mens B category of around 80 riders, I got to the front of the 2nd group just before the end of the 1st lap. Amazingly, I had passed almost 60 riders in that time. I got annoyed by the pace the other riders at the front were setting and I stepped it up as we headed into the last set of barriers. I was looking cool and fast. Then I forgot everything I knew about dismounts and with a new set of cleats on my shoes, I began to dismount, but didn't disengage the left foot from the pedal. As soon as the right foot touched the ground and the left foot didn't release, the bike shot forward, I tumbled and did a header straight into the first barrier. It made quite a racket and I rolled to my feet not quite sure which way to go. 'Oh, yeah, this way. That's where everyone else is going. I made it about another 100 yards and then the wooziness set in. It was about as good as some good bed spins after a night of drinking. I stopped as a few more riders passed me. Afterwards, I slowly remounted and got to the pit and replaced a wheel. I finished the race in a respectable 32nd, but the razzing I had to put up with after that was one of those things I'd rather not have to deal with again. I'd had others races where I had similar situations though just not right in front of everyone and never quite as embarrassing. I wonder how John-Lee felt when he dumped it today? Is he still asking himself, 'did I just do that?' If so, I wonder for how long?

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