Todd, Erik and I made the pilgrimage to Spokane the weekend of April 2nd and 3rd for the Frozen Flatland Stage Race, which included a circuit race and TTT on Saturday and a road race Sunday. The stages weren't scored together, so you could choose à la carte (most skipped the TTT), but we raced them all.

Erik and I rode in my car with freshly rotated tires and a morning oil change - the 'ole hot rod was bump drafting like Jr. at Daytona and handling well in the groove all day. After a pit stop for gas in Moses Lake we were good to go to the finish. About 5 miles from the "checkered flag" we came up on some back markers - I mashed it, got a good draft on the car in front, put on the left blinker and turned underneath the blocker down low to get back into clean air. Only problem was, the car I had just aced turned out to be an unmarked state trooper's.

The line of questioning was short and to the point ("Did you know we were staring each other in the eye, Andy?" "Did you see the speed limit sign for reduce speed, which is standard when getting close to areas of population?"

All I could do was nod my head up and down, especially when he mentioned that my move was, in his terms, "aggressive." Maybe he appreciated the fact that I had taken the time to turn my blinker on, or maybe he's a NASCAR fan and liked my driving style, but after a few minutes of this he handed my license back and sent me out of the pits and back on the track! This April Fool's Day was off to a great start . . . this really happened, no joke!

I guess it was fitting that the bike racing was on a race track. Much like at SIR, we lapped a road course 8 times with a tail wind on the drag straight and a head wind on the road portion. The action was more like a crit, with everyone being pretty frisky - both Todd and Erik jumped a couple of times and we all closed some gaps during the race. I told the guys before the start that I was going on a flyer on the last lap, and with about 2k to go I busted a move straight into the head wind.

I got a great gap and laid all my cards on the table, turning into the tail wind with 500 meters to go and with the pack closing all the way to the line, but I made it. I suffered, but Erik marked all the chasers and Todd won the field sprint for second - great team work, and great way to start the weekend. We dedicated the win to Larry Kemp.

The afternoon was a 10 mile TTT, and we got second, just 4 seconds out. We rode smart and smooth, and were happy with the result. The guys who beat us had 4 on their team as well as disk wheels and TT helmets. We did manage to beat the CAT 2 DoubleShot team (though they had much less time between races) - all good.

Sunday's road race had a few rollers and we did two laps on the course and back to the start/finish - Todd went solo for 20-30 minutes and built up a solid lead - nobody wanted to chase at this point and we just tooled along. Finally a couple of guys turned up the heat and the pack speed came up, pulling Todd back in, who knew it was coming and smartly rested up.

I countered immediately but couldn't make it stick, then Erik countered and went off the front for a bit. I bridged up, but brought along a few too many friends. Then the roaring lion (Todd) came back to life, put his head down, and blew off the front again! Two guys went with him (one of the guys, unfortunately, was money and we knew it). Erik told me to go too, but I hesitated an instant, not wanting to pull the pack with me, and missed the move, which would eventually cost us.

There was one hill about 10 miles from the finish, and the two guys with Todd guessed that he probably wouldn't drop them on the climb and proceeded to drop him. Erik and I got reports that our guy was off the break but we didn't have enough miles left to charge - we finally saw Tadder hugging the white line and gave him words of encouragement, but he was pretty blown. He had a big day off the front and the white flag was at full mast.

I attacked every hill the rest of the way to soften up the pack as much as I could, trying to get away. They just took turns reeling me in, but they were breathing hard. On the last roller I attacked just before 1k and just drained the juice, handing it over to Erik, who was in good position. The last 200 meters was uphill, and I watched Erik go right, then left, then finally run out of wheels and competition as he won the field sprint to take 3rd.

The drive home was uneventful.