Over the past couple of weeks I’ve built some crazy “dad-lore” as the kids say. Two weeks of back to back crazy racing, a broken finger the next week, and a race up a really curvy alley.

Race number one was a comically flat gravel race in Northern Minnesota and the first race of the Northstar Gravel Series. 108 miles with 2,400ft of elevation gain meant that essentially the only time I spent coasting was in the corners. I had a bit of a rough day out there and my legs felt quite flat. I tried to follow the winning move made by Emile Hamm from Thunder Bay, Canada. Emile is a big guy with a lot of power…I’m a little guy with less power. So in short, he dropped me and everyone else who followed him. I tried to recover back in the main group and hung in there till the last 10 miles but proceeded to get dropped again and chased solo to the finish for 15th overall. Another humbling day of bike racing.

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The next weekend was a flurry of Wisconsin MTB racing at the Englewood Open and running support for a local junior team I used to be a part of.

Dipped my toes back into UCI MTB racing and promptly remembered what turned me away from it 3 years ago. By all means, I love bar-to-bar racing but not at the cost of my entire paycheck just in license fees and race registration alone. I did have a blast traveling with my old coach Bruce again and giving back all of my experience to this new crop of midwest kids throwing down against the best in the country. Furthermore, it was really rewarding to help the Agnew family (who own the farm that just so happens to have a UCI level race course) tear down at the end of the weekend. A few of their grass-fed burgers and brats at the end of it all was sufficient payment. My race results were nothing to speak of but to be honest it was just good to get those types of efforts back in the legs again.

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I broke my finger in what to me feels like the most cool but dangerous way possible. I want to start by saying I am not a confrontational person but when someone asks for help I usually say yes. A buddy of mine asked if I could come with him to do what I can only call a FB marketplace stolen bike switcheroo. In-short, we showed up to the meeting spot and discovered that this person was not willing to give up the stolen bike and a scuffle/tug of war ensued. Because I grabbed onto the rear wheel I ended up wrenching my finger in between the spokes. That was Thursday. I spent Friday morning in urgent care getting an X-Ray and a splint before driving down with my teammate Griffin to Iowa to go race crits in the Quad Cities.

As far as the racing went, Snake Alley weekend is one of my favorite midwest racing staples. 3 of the 4 races over memorial day weekend have hills (good for me) and end up being battles of attrition that usually end in a reduced sprint or a solo attack. I prefer the latter as my sprint is pretty weak. Saturday’s race up Snake Alley in Burlington, a super steep brick road filled with switchbacks was super eventful. Starting order is based on registration date and I was slotted in the back but snuck up to the 2nd row. I got as good of a hole shot as I could’ve and proceeded for the first 5 laps to make the race as hard as possible on the front. From there it was simply “hold on and survive” to the finish. I held on to second after bonking and chasing back with a 2nd wind. Finnley Sonneman, the winner, is only 16 and such a humble racer with a lot of talent. As folks say, “that kid’s going places”.

Sunday’s race in Muscatine is a little flatter and always ends in a field sprint which doest suit my strengths but definitely suits my teammate Griffin who’s got a lot more raw power than I do. He’s been riding strong this spring and I did my best to help him throughout the race but with about 8 laps to go my splint slid off my finger. My fault for not taping it secure enough. At that point I had to pull out but Griffin rolled in for 5th after being boxed out in the final corner. A learning moment but we’re both hungry for more. On to the next one.