Bike Racing

I gave up bike racing a while ago - a combination of paying a lot of money to go suffer for a few hours, and then coming home with nothing to show for it other than an inflated/deflated ego.

Combine that with injuries and riding the same courses, well, I was looking for something new.  That pretty much lead me to do more mountain biking, and road biking in different places on different routes.  Organized rides (especially the ones with food) mostly took the place of races.

Then, something funny happened recently - I participated in a mountain/road race for the first time last weekend.  SFFlow was a ride through San Francisco that was put together by someone I know.  It was a total blast - no waivers, no entry fee, no need to compete if you didn't want to, all with cold beer and burgers at the end.  And a donation jar if you thought you had a good time.

The weather was perfect, the views were amazing, and company was great.  And I felt good after doing it.  Can't really beat that.  Here is a video from the ride with a great debrief by one of the organizers.