Having not done a Verge series race, he was staged in the second to last
row. It was a clog fest the entire first
lap, but Bruce was happy to have stayed upright and do some great dismounts and
mounts at the barriers and stairs.
The Orange:
Then Bruce met "The Orange" (code name: for the guy in the bright orange jersey) who
seemed to wreak havoc everywhere he went (at least it seemed when Bruce was
around). The Orange tripped up at the
barriers, hit Bruce's rear wheel, and crashed into the plastic netting. Then he crashed down right in front of Bruce
before a turn, jarring Bruce's bike enough to cause a chain drop. Unfortunately, Bruce had some trouble trying
to get the chain inside the chain catcher and almost gave up, but finally
managed to get it on. After losing at
least a minute working on the chain - the course was wide open - and he
explained "all I wanted to do was to squash The Orange."
The Chase:
So the chase was on. One by one
he was picking off the riders ahead of him, determined. Bruce explains, "I really dug - over
400 watts around the track and on the pavement - in aero position - cruised up
the stairs - really had my shifting dialed in - stayed upright - AND THEN - he
was in sight - up the last steep hill across the top." "Let him go ahead across the top and up
the rooted rise, then, I'll pass him after we get out of the woods", Bruce
told himself, and then, HE DID EXACTLY THAT!
Bruce stayed strong through the last technical part and managed to pull
off an excellent all out sprint! That
was a beautiful recovery for a CAT 4 racer placing 74th out of 89. Bruce said "I still have fear and am
not a great technical rider but I was proud of what I pulled off." And so was his coach Karen Mackin. "He turned around a negative and made it
a positive racing experience" she explained.
The Aftermath:
After the race, Bruce looked around for The Orange. He told his coach that he was inclined to
give him an earful but simply asked him, "How did you do?" Orange said, "Oh I fell at least 15
times." He kept talking about this
crash and that one - this issue he was having and then that one. Then he said, "You passed me at the
end." And then he went on and so he
let the orange go and said, "Great passion." He was reckless but did have passion in
spades.
