I left Columbus thinking the weather in Oxford was bound to be nice like Columbus.
No underlayers, gloves, arm warmers, nothing but a jersey and bibshorts.
I kept looking around as we staged, and I was literally the only one who had no underlayer, jacket, or arm covering. I'm pretty sure I was the only one among 80 or so racing who did not check for a local forecast. I am stupid that way.
It rained as we staged, we had steady cold rain that endured the first lap. After the second turn we got introduced to the first pass over a bad set of RR tracks that would repeat on the opposite side of the four turn square lap and then a long series of deep potholes that sent two riders off the road with flat tires and sent water bottles flying all over the place. Then it stopped and things warmed up, and then the second lap we had a long second blast of cold rain and hard cold winds.
I was literally shaking all over and had to quit. My hands were blue and among other things, I could not shift my shift levers!!!
I got back to the parking lot and stripped naked to get into my dry warm clothes and there were no cars in sight. Thank goodness Tony left the keys to his car over the back tire. As I am crouched naked by Tony's little VW GTI (he drove) some young lady comes blasting into the parking lot to ask for directions to the start/finish.
I had barely gotten my underwear up to my waist as she was rolling down her window to talk to me. She acted like she saw nothing unusual. That was probably TRUE. No way to spend Cinco de Mayo. Next year it's tacos al pastor and margaritas.
