Well folks, I took a trip down the old Tour de Gastown slip-and-slide last Wednesday.

Yes, as out right predicted in my last post, the Tour de Gastown criterium turned into one large slip-and-slide courtesy of decent amounts of rain combined with over 100 riders and topped off with large stretches of brick and cobblestones. Even a blind man could have seen it coming.

To make matters even sweeter (I’m being sarcastic), I decided to give it a go for a trip down the ‘ol slip-and-slide. Every time through the last corner I felt my rear wheel slip. I was running plenty low air pressure, but on wet and off camber bricks, well… it just doesn’t matter. So, lap after lap, I felt the two wheel power slide going down through the last corner. Sometimes it was a brief gentle slide and sometimes I broke free a bit more.

But… then there was this one lap where I feel like a big sack of wet shit.

And slid… and slid… and then managed to rotate around while sliding so that I could see some dude and my teammate Evan Elken riding straight towards me… and then slid some more before stopping.

And luckily I didn’t get plowed into although I probably deserved it.

I did however break my seat. Which the neutral support guys in the pit tried to fix and then offered up the idea of zip-tying it back on…

Now… I’m no genius or medicine man or really anything along those lines…

But I felt that zip-tying my saddle back on… in a wet and wild criterium… was probably one of the dumber things I could have done. I could just picture it… a few laps later… as I huffed and puffed around the slippery course… my seat completely ripping off and my seatpost piercing the family heirlooms.

I sit here and cringe at the thought.

So I told the guy, “No, it doesn’t mean that much to me”.

To which he must have thought I was a complete nutter (or wuss).

I then climbed over the barriers and rode a few blocks back to the hotel to take a hot shower.

End of story.

Take care and be safe out there.

Austin

For what it matters… my last true road crash was in August of 2005. GP Stad Geel… 50kmh downhill wet cobblestones. Reset the workplace accident counter folks and put me at 3 days and counting…

Sent from my DingleBerry wireless status symbol handheld.

Categories: Daily Jibber Jabber.