How to (or not to) ride a plank bridge

Upon arriving at Colert beach for Tinker Creek Cycle's inaugural Back 40 endurance race this past Sunday, my 5-year old daughter began cruising her tiny bike down the gravel road by the feed zone which ended in a 10-ft steep-ish drop. Before I could stop her, she had crashed at the bottom, blood pouring from her bottom lip. Luckily she was pretty much OK and was soon back on her bike even after saying that she would "never ride her bike again." As I couldn't let her be the only casualty, I made up my mind to one-up her crash during the first lap of the 80-kilometer race. As the following pictures will show, Johnny G. (winner of the butter belt) demonstrates a far superior entry from switchback-to-hardleftturn-to-plank-bridge than I had. I definitely learned once again that "checking one's speed" can be occasionally beneficial when faced with unfamiliar terrain. Unless of course you enjoy falling close to 10 feet and plunging head first into a muddy ditch. As I pulled my head out from the muck at the bottom of the creek I was actually quite surprised to be alive! (Thank-you Lord!) The bike was OK and i figured that the resulting chest pains were merely cosmetic... so.. back to the race baby!




All-In-All, a fantastic time with some great folks. Good times riding with Brad, Cory, Dave, Rob, and Paul.