The lighter side of life – staying in touch with friends and family by celebrating the ordinary.
And the winner is…
You might remember back in March, Laura and Alex came to Tucson for Alex to compete in a bike race here. He did very well until the last day when a couple of people ahead of him collided, creating a pile-up. Alex broke his clavicle and had to fly home the next day in a temporary splint, and get surgery later that week.
After his surgery he worked hard to stay in shape. At the time I wrote, “We’re happy he’s feeling better, but sorry about an upcoming race in Sacramento he was really hoping to have a shot at winning in May of this year. He came in second back in 2019 before the pandemic closed it down. Well, maybe next year.”
The upcoming race was scheduled for the last weekend in April and he just had surgery in March – it didn’t seem possible. I was assuming he was going to have to sit out the Sacramento race this year. But he trained hard all through April with his arm in a sling.
Finally, a week before the race, his doctor said he could take off his sling. That was all Alex needed to hear – he was determined to win that race in Sacramento.
Here he is, warming up.
He did really well the first day on various timed trials. Here’s the big race on the second day: https://youtu.be/Bh7HOA2vDwI
In the video you can hear them announce Alex’s name as the front runner (and that’s Laura screaming). But did he actually win?
Alex is the one on our right (left from the point of view of the bicyclists). You can’t get much closer than that. Impossible to call!
We waited tensely for the results. Finally the results posted, but Alex’s name was nowhere. Surely that wasn’t right. He was either first or second. Or there was a tie for first.
After some discussion, they reposted with Alex in first place! Whooo-hooo! But wait. Controversy ensued. Lots of people showed the referees the videos on their phones. And the call was reversed! Alex was second.
He took it well.
Turns out he had good reason to not mind being second. It was just one race of many timed events and he knew he was likely still going to win the whole thing. And sure enough, when all the points were totaled over the couple of days of racing, Alex was the champion for the weekend!
Yay, Alex! Eight weeks after breaking his clavicle.
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