Memo Paris

Remember in The Natural how Roy Hobbs becomes romantically interested in Memo Paris and then he goes into a slump when she’s at the games? Yeah, I didn’t either*. But my wife did, and she said she must be kind of like that at bike races. With the exception of one mountain bike race, I’ve never won when she’s been present.

*Unlike Dug, I do not remember every scene and every bit of dialogue from every movie I’ve ever seen. In fact, I have to strain to recall the last movie I saw (Inception) and what it was even about.

At RMR last night, Shane from Ski Utah and Alex from Canyon went on a flyer from the gun. I didn’t think the two of them would stay away alone, but nobody was really chasing, either. If I was going to do the work to bring them back, I would rather bring one guy who could make the break stick than the entire field.

On lap three, I told Cody from Ski Utah to stay on my wheel while I tried to get some separation from the field and get in the break. We bridged, and shortly thereafter, Jon and Drew from Canyon, Chad from Bicycle Center, and Dave from RMCC also joined us. We worked together for about 30 minutes, nobody in the field was willing to chase, and we were away for good.

With eight guys in a break, you either have to like your chances in the sprint or make an early move. Cody made a move with three to go, which Jon and I covered. The other five brought us back, and then there wasn’t much activity until the final lap.

Coming around the last corner, Cody was on front, and I was on his wheel waiting for the first attack. We got closer to the finish and nobody went. My confidence grew as we drew closer to the line. With about 200 to go, I sprinted and had enough to keep Chad from coming around. Rachel, of course, was not there to watch. Or keep me from winning, depending on how you look at it.