One Eyed Willie- As fate my have it: The Cone Report

It seems that as I pile on the years, certain health ailments that were never present before keep popping up. One of which has been allergy induced severe eye irritation to the point of losing vision. Last week I started developing a left eye irritation that built up to my eventual temporary partial loss of vision in my left eye just in time for the 2008 Cone Azalia. For those of you who may be unaware, bike racing involves a great deal of depth perception and distance judgments, all of which are difficult to pull off without the use of one eye.

This was as wide as I could open my eyes yesterday morning

Nonetheless, with much encouragement from Dybo that I would have a good race because I was required to overcome adversity, I made it to the start line on Sunday.


I was very lively from the gun, getting in a break on the first lap containing myself, Scott Riddle of West Coast, and Ben Whitehead of Bissell. We seemed to be rolling it up pretty decent and maintaining a healthy distance from the pack until lady luck took a right jab at us and connected square. As we turned the corner to begin our second lap and dirt section we were held up by a train, forced to wait while we watched out efforts dissolve away and the eager pack stomp on the pedals to catch us. What can I say, that’s racing…Cone takes a little skill and a lot of luck as well.

Shortly after the train pulled away a handful of the Bissell boys rode off from the field. After watching the group roll for awhile DK made a hellaciously successful bridge attempt and joined forces with a few other teams adding to the mix (Essex Brass, West Coast). Being a Bissell dominated break, we knew it had the horsepower to succeed and we were happy to have Danny in the break.


The third lap brought about a very catastrophic event. Sadly, Heather Mitchell, in the women’s field we were about to overtake, had crashed in a dirt section. Sparing the gory details, it was one of the worst crashes I have ever seen. Emergency vehicles immediately took her away; my hopes and prayers are with her. My hats are off to riders like Jon Card, Robert Foshag, and Scott Riddle who selflessly sacrificed their own races to stop and offer emergency assistance at the scene. This event changed the vibe of the race a bit, we seemed to forget about racing for a while and rode more like it was a leisurely Sunday social ride. However, by the end of the fourth lap the attacks sparked back up and myself, and two other Teammates (Cory and Adam) were able to escape away with four other riders from varying teams.

On the final lap, we tried a few feeble attempts to shake up the chase break but fell short.
We realized our best bet to pick up the scraps was the young gun Cory, so Adam and I led him out for the chase break sprint win.

Meanwhile, up the road, DK was outnumbered by the Bissell boys in red but still managed to claim a 3rd place podium spot among the dominated break.

One of my season goals was to place top ten at Cone. However, this goal was compromised for the betterment of the team when I decided to give the sacrificial lead to Cory. I still feel satisfaction from this result, and will contemplate considering it a goal achieved.


WSC Finish Breakdowns:
Pro 1-2
Dan Klein-3rd Place
Cory Dubrish-7th Place
Tim Finkel-11th Place
Adam Maclounie-12th Place
Raymond Dybowski-16th Place

Cat 3
Cruise Bogedin-1st Place
John Coates-3rd Place
Doug Hedges-13th Place
Scott Kroske-14th
Alen Smith-15th Place
Brent Delrosario-finished somewhere in the mix, sorry I'm not sure where

Cat 4
Scotty Fab-10th Place

*Sorry if I missed anyone, these were the ones that I was aware of


Of course our celebratory post-race meal had to take place at the now ritualistic Whole Foods in A2.