Tuesday, August 05, 2008

biker boy!

This past Saturday a little town next to us had a road bike race around a 3/4 mile loop. Men and women would ride for 40 minutes plus 5 laps (the same loop over and over and over again). There were wipe outs a plenty and standing right on a corner having 30 men whip by you at a high rate of speed tends to make you want to step back. I realized it was something that I would not enjoy doing as racers are mere inches from each other at all times. No thank you.

During the middle of the race there was the Tour de Kids. 4 races were held. The first was for 4 and under and on training wheels. They rode 200 feet of the course. 2nd heat was 4 and 5 year olds. 3rd was 5-7 year old and 4th was 7-9 year olds. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th groups rode one lap of the course.






Sam rode in the 3rd heat of 5-7 year olds. There were about 30 kids racing in this heat. Sam started at the front, but slipped off the pedals at the start and ended up in the back half of the group. We went down to wait before the finish and saw three little guys round the last corner for the last stretch and Sam was one of them. The three finished side by side and he was considered in 2nd place.


He also rode with the 7-9 year olds and finished 10th, but riders 1-9 had bigger wheels on their bikes compared to Sam who had to ride twice as hard to keep up with them.


He was exhausted, but he absolutely loved it! Each kid received a blue ribbon and a free t-shirt. I think we've created a monster and I'm sure there will be more races ahead.

4 comments:

Amy said...

My brother is a die-hard racer. He's one of those crazy ones that rides inches away from another cyclist. He's seen some pretty bad wipeouts and actually got involved in one when several bikers in front of him crashed. Fortunately he wasn't badly hurt. He loves it. And there are a lot worse things Sam could be interested in!

Jean said...

I noticed that on Matt's facebook picture and wondered how serious he was about biking. :) It's hard to see him as all grown up! :)
Sam will bike any time he can. Though I think once he bikes his 1st mountain bike race that'll be it. Along with wanting to play soccer, football, baseball and hockey. :)

Anonymous said...

Way to go, Sam! What a fun experience :)

Anonymous said...

Cool opportunity for Sam and the proud parents! I think racing so close to other riders would be stressful too!