Okay. I know I said I was going to post about the race a couple of days ago, but apparently, I lamed-out and didn't get to it until today. I still haven't figured out how to load the video John took of the start, but I will try to make that happen this weekend.
So, we walked around State Street before the race. Usually when we go to Madison, we are either hanging out around my brother's house or going to races around the area and don't get to see much of the downtown area.The last time I spent much time on State Street was about 20 years ago. It has changed a lot since then. It used to be all hippie type clothing stores and head shops. Now, it's a mix of all kinds of things. I'm glad about that. We saw Slayer was playing and we thought it might be perfect to hear them right after a fat bike crit, but it turns out that they weren't playing until March. We had to miss the RAWK!
So, remember how I said they encouraged costumes? Well, Burne had his idea all set. He decided to be a scarecrow, which was brilliant since it was so damn cold out and it gave him the perfect excuse to wear Carhartts and stuff his clothes with nice, warm straw.
We got ready at the parking ramp at our hotel. I'm sure the other guests saw the straw all over the ground and wondered why someone felt the need to bed down their car for the night...
This was the first time I met the Easter Bunny. Later, at the bar, I got to talk to her a little and she was just as adorable as her costume.
Marvin the Martian was also an excellent costume. Although, he doesn't seem to be all that very aero.
John helped Burne with his costume before the race. I'm not sure what he's doing here, but he might be knocking the stuffing INTO him.
They decided to do a Le Mans start. Which means people stage their bikes and then walk to a designated area. When they blow the whistle, they all run to their bikes and then hop on them and ride. I didn't hear them from where I was standing, but Burne said all of the racers were yelling and whooping and making tons of noise when they started running.
Our friend Rob didn't wear a costume, but he did pretty well in the race. By the way we gauged it, we figure he was somewhere in the top 10. They said they placed the first three men and women, but after that, everyone else was 4th.
They called this the World Championship snowy, nighttime, fat bike crit...Which, of course, just means it's the ONLY snowy, night time, fat bike crit. We kept telling Burne that no matter how he did, he would be 4th place in the World Championships.
Burne did great. He got right out there and was having a blast around the first couple of laps, when his back tire went flat. Damn it!
John saw it and went to meet him at the start of the race. He asked everyone around if they had a pump and helped Burne pump up his tire. Burne got around another lap and a half before his tire went flat again and since he didn't want to mess-up the rim of his beautiful, new bike, he had to give up the ghost and DNF (did not finish).
After we all met back at the bar, we asked Burne if he had fun on what he was able to ride of the race. He said it was a blast. So, according to how I look at racing, where the person who has the most fun, wins, Burne was actually the snowy, night time, fat bike world champion. RAWK!
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