all this

Yesterday Magyar and I went out to Menomonie for the Stout Cycling Club Alleycat. It was a gorgeous day for a bike ride and I was feeling really jazzed about getting to go race in another city. One of the best parts of alleycats is getting a feel for a city you never ride in and get to find out what people in that city ride every day. Anyway Magyar and I got there, wandered around campus for a bit before running into the race planner paying registration and getting our manifest. The race was set up like more of a scavenger hunt than an alleycat which was an intersting change and opened up a lot of possibilities for knocking out multiple stops at once.

I pretty much took a back seat to the routing and let Magyar take lead. Not only is he super fast, he is better at reading maps and routing than most cartographers. I think it's fair to say that any time you're not sure what to do in a race and you see Magyar it's a safe bet to get behind him and hold on because he usually has a plan and legs to carry it out.

Cut to the chase, the race started I tailed Magyar and we hit some nice tail winds out of town, cut across the highway and ditched a tail while we hit up two more checkpoints on the other side. Went back through town and with two checkpoints left Magyar said he was going to open up and go for the win. Needless to say that was the last I saw of him until the finish in which time he opened up a six minute gap on me. Magyar rolled in first, six minutes later I took second, about five more later I'm pretty sure a guy on a 29er took third.

During the race we got some help from our boy Trevor who moved to Menomonie and helped us find a dorm we had no idea about. Then promptly had his frame break at the seat stay. No good deed goes unpunished.

After all was said and done we hit up the Log Jam with Trevor and got some much needed refreshments, including three shots of Maker's Mark purchased for us by a fellow cyclist at the bar rocking a really nice Nature Boy.

The race was pretty short which was kind of nice because it meant I still had plenty of energy for the rest of the night which pretty much entailed hanging out at the house with Mags and Hughs picking up Jen then coming back home and hanging out with Andy and Scott having a few beers and eating apples till bedtime.

Thanks to everyone in Menom for the good time and hospitality. Check out the Valleycat this year and we will repay the favor.

Next stop on the EC Velo Tour of Destruction Durand, April 16.