March 18, 2007

"The Ultimate Sandbagger"

I raced with the Sport 50+ category this afternoon on a long and, to me, a hard course. From the start Bill Whidden and Mike Stabler took the lead while I was in third with several riders on my wheel. A couple miles into it Mike took the lead from Bill and the pace picked up. I messed up in the fast tight corners and lost several places to the riders behind me. Once out of the tight stuff I worked my way back up to Bill who was in second place. About an hour and twenty minutes into the race I finally caught up to the leader, Mike. He and I battled for a few miles but I ultimately finished 21 seconds in the lead. Pretty close, I thought.

But no... at the podium presentation, the announcer calls me "the ultimate sandbagger" in front of all my friends and family.

OK Whatever... and even though it may have been in jest and done with love, making fun of Byron "Bud" Merritt, who is one of my heroes, calling him "DFL" (Dead F***kin' Last) -- C'mon show some respect dude. I think they should stand Bud on the top step of the podium, all by himself, and everyone should applaud, salute and bow to this man who is still racing mountain bikes at 61 years of age -- and doing a mighty fine job too!

More photos from Bev

Posted by dancoy at March 18, 2007 05:01 PM
Comments

Sounds like Bruce "the idiot " was a speaker .

Good guy but still the idiot , based on things he says .

Congrats on your win . Looks like roadie in you made up for the lost ground on technical sections .

Posted by: wojtek at March 18, 2007 05:14 PM

Thanks Wojtek. That was a tough race and I gave it everything I had. Maybe, like the famous gunfighters of the old West, sometimes a reputation grows larger than reality.

Posted by: Dan at March 18, 2007 06:50 PM

Yea, Bruce can be "that guy". I guess he runs out of things to say after talking all day. Bud would kill Bruce in a race, next time he should ask him to go a lap heads up!
Didnt see you yesterday Dan or I would have spoke. I was wasted after 5 laps.
We need to get Dean on the bike.......

Posted by: Jason Pruitt at March 19, 2007 08:36 AM

Jason, I just looked at the results. Dude, you are riding strong! Eric Murphy was impressive at 'cross this year too.

Posted by: dan at March 19, 2007 02:09 PM

Thanks Dan! I feel faster than I ever have it's just that I have some really fast company at the races. I was just giving your bro the race report. You are riding fast as always. I cant seem to "cross over" as well as you. All the years racing MX I guess. Im going to get up there and ride with you guys one weekend.

Posted by: Jason Pruitt at March 19, 2007 02:32 PM