Belltown Classic

The Belltown Classic, root 66 series # thres. it was such a cool race. This race ate me for lunch and dinner last year. i made it about 5 minutes in and rode the rest of the race like a young child. This year was a much diferent day. rather then the 80+ heat, we were welcomed by a perfect 55 degreas and light drizzle ( fo shizzle ) the course was that shinny, slippery kind of mud. the kind that was anoying on the gradual fire road sections, but smile-lishish in the single strack. the stuff that when right, you can actualy corner faster becase you can just slide the rear end around and into the burm. the first steep climb was replaced with a more gradual long one then soon turned ito going the wrong way up a river. i rode 80% of it the first lap and got a bit of a gap on the rest of the group there. ( note: i hadnt run since cross nationals. it hurt. its a good thing im going to get some merzbach time this weekend ) After hitting the single track first, i turnded down the burners a bit. afterall, i hadnt led a race this far in since exactly 2 years ago. ( watershed 04 ). Mr. no-name came up behind me and fell on and off my wheel for the remander of the first lap. i would gep him on the flats but hed come back on the DH's. he pulled a Halliday and attacked me thru the feed zone with 2 to go. i got a little chain suck, back pedled a tad and was causous not to loose my bottle with slipery gloves. the 10 foot gap he got was the closest id ever get for the rest of the race. after puuting 4 minutes on he-who-shall-not-be-named on the first 30 min lap, i rode on his wheel for a while. half becase he picked it up a bit in the single track, and half becase im so used to just folowing his wheels in races, i almost frogot to pass. as soon as i made the go-by, CRACK! same damb seat clamp problem as Sea Otter. so there i was, riding another 15 minutes of single track trying to stand/balance on the tippity top of an SLR and avoid penitration. finaly i got to the bottum of the decent and riped my tool off my top tube, and clamped her back down. then checked it to make sure she was locked. then checked again. by this point, he-who-shall-not-be-named-Tim had came back up on me. wearing the skinsiut, and having just lost the electrical tape the tool was taped on with, i passed the tool off to hasnt-got-his-skin-siut-yet to put in his pocket. i was off and rocking for the remander of lap 2, still sitting second and making up ground. coming back down the final decent before the feed zone, CRACK!. youve got to be kidding me. again i was left with a carbon spike of SLR facing UP. i tryed flipping the bike upside down and piledriving it into the ground nose first to crack it back into place. no luck there and was off, alredy prepared to loos another bunch-o-places due to seat clamp issuses, when i remembered the diference between this race and sea otter. Sea otter, 200 people passed me and not one of them had a tool. yeah. right. then i remembered this ISNT CALIFORNIA! low and behold, first guy by, in my catigory mind you, offers me his tool. bata-bing bata-boom, alittle bit of love and i was back in action. ( with his tool shoved down my shorts for lack of better storage space. not only was he nice enough to let me use it, he was nice enought to pull over, and take it back so i didnt have to carry it home. by this point i had just been passed by muscles mic mulse man and was back to 3rd. muscles attached hard up the stream bed and got a 10 second gap going into the single track. i guess he thought he was making a good move and riding me off his wheel, but i just kind of laughed a little at the vains i could see poping out of his forhead when he looked back evry 10 seconds to see if he had droped me yet. ( not to idiot: when your hurting, and you can here someone on your wheel. dont look back at them. all you r doing is throwing off your line and putting us both into a tree. ) i made the scetchyest pass of the day on the most technical down hill to get rid of him. he was half way over his bars when i brushed by, sitting on my top tube, dragginf my foot in the mud. never saw him again, but crused home like i had Policia on my tail just for good practice. Overall felt really well. maybe some of the best technical skills ive ever put together for race day. Podium presentation was pretty cool. what else would you win at the belltown classic but a Big Honkin Cowbell. this thing is sweet, and so rediculisly loud. i tested it out for cross season this afternoon, seeeing if i could still hear " Alright Todd, Up Up Up Up!!!" over the sound of the bell... It'll do. Next up is a diferent kind of goofy outfit event. this time i'll go where no colt mcelwaine has ever gone before. a formal ocation. thats right, Prom time. Chowder, Colt