SMACKED DOWN

photos stolen from www.yourbikesucks.com ..

here's a little example of how bike racing goes. .. . we had a little in-house team race. we divided into 3 teams. . . Sargent Sayer's Slayers, Moninger and sons, and my team: Jackson Stewart's Smackdown boys. . ."smackdown" would more accurately express my experience.

3 laps on an 11 mile loop, with a gradual finish climb. . . .

mile 1.5 - Garcia off the front. I hesitated, then followed Moninger's wheel, eventually bridging up to Garcia, then a break of Sayers/moninger/Garica/me/Mckissick/ and a couple others, NONE being "smackdown"except mua.

Captain jackson earlier gave me the job of following Moninger's wheel the WHOLE RACE. .

but,

mile 4 - Ian McKissick off the front. . i had to go. . the strongest dude at camp. . i thought, we could stay away. . so, i bridged. . .

we stayed away for the remainder of the lap, through the climb, picking up the first $50 "prem", agreeing to split the money and take even pulls. .. but Ian technically "got it"...our director saw that i didn't contest it, but that did me little good win they praised and handed out money to Ian at dinner. ..

Ian and I were flying, had a good 45 second gap on the chasers.

mile 15 - Ian and I get mis-directed (on NOT directed), we miss a turn, .. turn around, costing us 25+ precious seconds. . ..

mile 20 - we get caught by Jake/Garcia/Moninger .. . Sayer's destroyed himself to bring the time gap down, then Jake finished it off .. and Garcia, their teammate, sat on in the slipstream the entire time Ian and I were battling the wind in the break, burning a handful of matches. ..

and sitting on Garica: the crafty Moninger. . Ian's teammate. . .

to summarize: i'm alone against 2 teams of 2 and just got done flogging myself. . .

to further summarize: I didn't see a single "smackdown" boy since mile 0.8

... moninger and Garcia counter as soon as we get pulled in. Garcia picks up the $50 prem .. . .. i manage to stay with them over the top of the climb. . .

mile 23 - i see Ian is gaped, along with Jake . . . . . i see moninger go to take his Knee warmers off. I attack.

I drag those dudes through some rollers. . making Ian chase like a dog . . Garcia, being a bro, takes a couple pulls. .. moninger sits there. breathing through his nose. . .

frustrated, i start making them do some work. . moninger soft peddles. . .

mile 29 - Mckissick catches on with Jake. . i'm out numbered again. . .

. . i had to cover every attack and counter attack from then on. . .

eventually, going with mckissick as soon as we hit the climb. .. then garcia pulls us back,

and WACK! moninger's rested little legs go up the road. . Garcia follows. . .Ian pops. .. a few peddle stocks later, I pop. . . 3rd place.

and then. . .you can see by the pictures what i had to deal with last night at dinner.

moninger won, but i think the little guy needed it. ..