The Wrong Way

Monte competed in a cyclo-cross race held at the Devil's Glen Park in Bettendorf, IA on Sunday. My parents came and thoroughly enjoyed watching Monte jump over hurdles with his bike. They had never seen anything like it before. Anyway, there were maybe 20-25 participants in the race. Monte started off great, he was right up front... then all of a sudden we hear "Wrong way! You're going the wrong way!" Yep - Monte veered off-course in a poorly marked area, therefore losing his nice lead. Needless to say, this really irked him and gave him plenty of motivation and adrenaline to catch up with the leaders....

And catch up he did! Most exciting race I've seen him do so far - by the time the last lap came around, he had shortened the gap between himself and the leader, Will, by only 10 seconds. Everyone was going nuts. And in the course of that last lap, Monte passed Will on the running-up-hill-with-your-bike part and never looked back! He won - even though he lost time and went off-course at the beginning!

Will was a cool guy - he and Monte shook hands after the race and Will said he just "bonked" on that last lap. And I think he was surprised to hear that Monte was the guy who had gone off-course... and still won! (yes, I'm proud)