Photo cred to Sparky Moir A lamentation on haste.
I came out of the first Big Mountain Enduro of the year (BME Snowmass)- stop #2 of the NAET), with a 2nd place finish in a strong field of fast women. I was left with a race high and a lightness in my step. Landing on the podium after 2 days of killer terrain in the backcountry and the bike park will certainly leave you buzzing. So when it came time to head back to Colorado Springs where I was fulfilling my civic duty as an Army nurse a Ft Carson, I took to the highway with glee, and a slightly heavy foot. Alright, I’ll be honest, I always have a lead foot, but I would like to take this opportunity to blame the sport.
Until about a year ago, on my way to BME Durango, I had a fairly pristine driving record (teenage years aside). Race weekends amp me up more than Red Bull or Mountain Dew ever could. I gave those beverages up as a teenager. I thought I had given up traffic violations too. On the way to Durango I got nailed doing well over the posted legal limit in the speed trap that I knew all about just south of Buena Vista. Yesterday the jerk clocked me at 12 over. I wasn’t even cornering. Now, I fear I am in danger of too many points in a calendar year and the subsequent loss of my driving privileges. At this point, that may not be such a bad thing.
So I would like to speculate that racing bikes, (and being good at it), is correlated with speeding, and being good at it.
A friend of mine dates one of the a Pro Enduro-racer. You might have heard of him. He's fast and has wicked skills on the bike. Rumor has it that this guy is just as fast on 4-wheels as he is on 2. And he’s not shy about it. He’s got the radar detector, the black paint job, and his license plate is a clever combination of l’s and 1’s and 7’s- so that its hard to tell exactly what it reads. For example: 11I-I71. The guy is fast. And he’s good at going fast.
And then there are other friends. Good driving friends. The kind who take singletrack corners and technical terrain with a healthy dose of braking. They are skilled mountain bikers and fine automobile drivers, but they are not getting any podiums or speeding tickets. They are getting envy-inducing insurance rates and eco-friendly MPGs.
Coincidence? I think not.
I came out of the first Big Mountain Enduro of the year (BME Snowmass)- stop #2 of the NAET), with a 2nd place finish in a strong field of fast women. I was left with a race high and a lightness in my step. Landing on the podium after 2 days of killer terrain in the backcountry and the bike park will certainly leave you buzzing. So when it came time to head back to Colorado Springs where I was fulfilling my civic duty as an Army nurse a Ft Carson, I took to the highway with glee, and a slightly heavy foot. Alright, I’ll be honest, I always have a lead foot, but I would like to take this opportunity to blame the sport.
Until about a year ago, on my way to BME Durango, I had a fairly pristine driving record (teenage years aside). Race weekends amp me up more than Red Bull or Mountain Dew ever could. I gave those beverages up as a teenager. I thought I had given up traffic violations too. On the way to Durango I got nailed doing well over the posted legal limit in the speed trap that I knew all about just south of Buena Vista. Yesterday the jerk clocked me at 12 over. I wasn’t even cornering. Now, I fear I am in danger of too many points in a calendar year and the subsequent loss of my driving privileges. At this point, that may not be such a bad thing.
So I would like to speculate that racing bikes, (and being good at it), is correlated with speeding, and being good at it.
A friend of mine dates one of the a Pro Enduro-racer. You might have heard of him. He's fast and has wicked skills on the bike. Rumor has it that this guy is just as fast on 4-wheels as he is on 2. And he’s not shy about it. He’s got the radar detector, the black paint job, and his license plate is a clever combination of l’s and 1’s and 7’s- so that its hard to tell exactly what it reads. For example: 11I-I71. The guy is fast. And he’s good at going fast.
And then there are other friends. Good driving friends. The kind who take singletrack corners and technical terrain with a healthy dose of braking. They are skilled mountain bikers and fine automobile drivers, but they are not getting any podiums or speeding tickets. They are getting envy-inducing insurance rates and eco-friendly MPGs.
Coincidence? I think not.
Photo cred to Meredith Goss