The Greenwood Goosechase 2006 - (The Story)

Greetings people

I am here to bring you into another edition of my life and try to bring a smile to your face. Or maybe even try to put another notch in the "who the fuck is this guy?! column"

Well, this was my second bike event of the year and I was already doing good from the Elephant Rock Ride that I had done the week before. I was and still ready to take on the world and see what she had in store for me. Anyway, these set of pictures are basically taken at the end of the event. Once again the bike gods were nice and gracious on this day in June. No rain and the sun was shining ever so brightly.

Here is the link for the Greenwood Goosechase. Even this year they had the times posted for the event. I was a bit surprised - otherwise I would of tried a bit harder. Well, what I mean is that in past years there have been no official times that were taken. Oops, I almost forgot http://www.goosechase.org/ I have my time listed in the 42 M catagory since that was the longest bike ride available that day. Better than doing a shorter ride. My time was 2:22.28. The time is sort of unofficial since no one was wearing a timing chip, but I guess that was better than nothing.

I wish that you guys and gals could of seen the finishing stretch that I put on. Sort of unusual, I was cruising to the finish line and then this rider had the gall to pass me on the eve of the last corner onto Quebec Street going North. I could not believe this shit that this rider was trying to pull on me. Well, that sort of got me by the short hairs and I instantly reacted. I think I had about 50 yards left to the finish line and also an edge. The edge was that this rider probably that he passed me for good and I was no longer a threat to his placing.

So, with that reasoning, I was able to drop into a higher gear and ride like the wind. He was sort of lolly gagging and sitting down on his seat thinking "oh yeah another rider behind me". Well, I put every ounce into turning over the pedals in order to get my place in front of him back. I am not going to use the phrase "pedals of anger", which is so cliche to the Tour de France. Sure, riders pedal "out of anger", but I would not call this angry. I would call this "who in the hell do you think you are?" mood. I was not going to be upped in the last leg of the bike tour.

So, returning to the story I was pedalling downhill, along with Cartman in my mind saying "Son of a Bitch" and saying this finish is "mine" Gosh readers, I can not even begin to write on how Cartman says the word "mine", but it is classic and well folks his "mine" was my"mine" for this moment. I would say I was about five feet behind him when he probably heard me on his backside. I saw his head turn left and then that was the moment that I had to make my move since he was aware of me and that the finish line was about thirty yards from us. He instantly stood up in his pedals and started to pump his legs, however this was where he lost the race. Since, he was sort of cruising and probably basking in his finishing moment to come he was not pedaling constantly where as I was since I was trying to catch up to him. He had to push from zero point into his low gear which meant a harder pedal stroke for him. By the time he realized his mistake I was ahead and the finish line was right there. It was a photo finish and I won this little race between us by a quarter of wheel.

That was a close race, my friends. We both took up one lane going downhill to the finish and it was, to me, a race for everything. I nearly ran down a volunteer at the finish line. She was standing in the course looking at the both of us coming down the hill. How the fuck she did not see the race between us and the speed we were coming, but let me say that she missed getting hit by me by 6 inches! Anyway, the other rider laughed, smiled and said good job to me and all I could do was gloat for I had won the day. Boo-yah!

The day and the ride was over and I was the "Son of a bitch" I thought I was. Let me tell you this little "win" was a big thing for my ego and I did let the feeling go away for the day. So, as you look into this photo you can see the "smugness" in each of these photos and also you will see the words of Cartman on the back of my jersey "Oh, man, you guys suck!", which I literally projected on everyone I passed up that day.

By the way, if any of you have seen the episode of Southpark that featured "Smug" I have not and will not imitate "their" version of "smug" As Cartman would say...

"That's F'd in the A"

Daryl Charley

The Fallen Athlete