WORS #2: a few pics from Rhinelander

It's pretty lame that I have already done about 5 mountain bike races (and, shockingly enough, 3 crits and one road race) and haven't posted a race report yet! It's not for lack of things to say, I have written plenty of posts in my head. This post will continue that reportless state, however. (The road events were an experiment, by the way, after years away from road racing.)

In the meantime, some have wondered, when hearing I was headed for the WORS race in Rhinelander last weekend, why one would drive so far for a race. In answer, I am going to put a couple of pics up that were taken for the WORS photo contest. There may be more later. I was in the feed zone for much of the elite race, so I got very few action pics. I ended up with lots of venue pics, sponsor banner pics, and candids (contest categories). Blogger is not letting me upload many pics, it keeps getting hung up, so those three will have to do for now.

I wonder if the economy has gotten so bad in the north woods that even the ticks are trying to hitch rides to the big city to look for work. That is what I had to think last night when I found a tick attached to my shoulder. I panicked and headed straight for the tweezers! At least this time I knew what it probably was. Whereas on Sunday driving home I felt what I thought was a scab on my neck under my chin. I plucked it off and looked at it ...... ewwwww, a brown bug with lots of legs!! I realized it was probably a tick and my knee-jerk reaction was to fling it away from me. A moment later I realized that was a terrible idea - now I was going to wonder where it was and if it was crawling on me for hours while driving home!! I tried leaving the door open at the rest stop for a few extra minutes, hoping it would leave. Really loud music may or may not have induced it to crawl into hiding somewhere in the car. Or, it may have been the same one that ended up on my shoulder, in which I guess I have to grudgingly appreciate its persistence. It had almost made it's way back to it's original spot on my neck. It's surprising that in years of mt. bike racing I have never gotten a tick - or at least have known about it - until now. If you went to Rhinelander, check yourself and your gear for ticks!!