No blog for a year and a half!?

Sorry guys. Generally I don't blog because I don't think that my stories are all that interesting but you can follow me on Twitter here:Sorry guys. Generally I don't blog because I don't think that my stories are all that interesting but you can follow me on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/DavidSagat
and read shorter, more manageable bit of things about me which you may or may not find interesting.
Also, you'll notice that I have a Facebook again. Don't bother bothering me on it because you'll be ignored.

But I WILL tell you a fun story of What Happened This To Me This Past Weekend As I Tried To Race My Bicycle (it's a working title):

The race was the SERC/US Cup East #4 race at Fort Yargo here in GA. I know, sounds amazing. And it was (almost).
At the start, which someone deemed appropriate to stage on effing PINESTRAW I spun out and basically almost took out the guy to the right of me and in a fashion extremely unbecoming of someone with the nickname of Holeshot Dave, I entered the woods in DEAD EFFING LAST place.
After about half a lap on the super exciting and seemingly not-at-all dangerous 18 km (11 miles for you kids who didn't go to college or live outside of Uhmerica™ [copyright Tristan Cowie]) course, I decided that last place was probably not where I wanted to be for the rest of the race so I attacked like some kind of moron for the rest of the lap and after the first lap was completed I found myself in third place, behind Victor (in first, who I was not going to catch under any circumstances) and R. Marion from the AmClassic Factory Team, who I wanted to catch pretty badly because, well, the payout for second is higher than the payout for third. Yes, you read right, that entire previous paragraph was one single run-on sentence. Applaud freely.
So, after the first lap was completed in 40-something (41?) minutes, I was less than a minute back from Marion and I was chasing like V. Petrov in Malaysia and taking all sorts of stupid chances (if you don't watch Formula 1, ignore that last reference) and long story short, your Protagonist (?) ended up in a tree sideways with my knee twisted 90º and my ankle smashed between my bike and aforementioned tree, plus I got a nice little gash on my knuckle which in and of itself is quite complaint-worthy.
After extracting myself from the tree, I finished the second lap in pretty bad pain (this part is not the joke so don't laugh) while going very slowly due to my right leg not really being able to contribute to the whole "forward motion" thing.
I hobbled over to the promoters and given a bag of ice and the EMS were called over. The EMS Good Ole Boys looked at me funny (on account of my spandex, I assume, or maybe they were gay and impressed by my abs) and twisted my foot to and fro and said something rather non-technical sounding about what may have happened to my ankle but that it was probably not broken and nevertheless that it probably was a good idea if I didn't try to go ride my bike again that day.

Moral of the story is that if you're in third by a comfortable margin and on a course that doesn't suit you, don't chase second on the off-chance that you may be able to catch him, because then you're still going to have to pass the dude and if that guy is Robert Marion then he'll probably outsprint you anyway with his cyclocross-derived sprinting abilities. So just ride your ride, shake hands, get your check, and go home happy/uninjured.
You think 10 years of racing would have taught me this already but like they say, you never stop learning.
My record for 2011 mountain bike races stands at 2 podiums and 1 DNF. Tragic.


Next weekend is the Dirty Spokes endurance race (same venue). My participation is contingent upon what I hear back from the promoter about payout but I'll probably be there racing 6 Hour Open.