MBGP

What a weekend. First let's get the Green Trolley out of the way. The course is a 3 corner and a sweeper, with a short steep hill before the long drag to the s/f. Good course, and we (cat.2's) had our own race. So about 50 of us lined up and off we went. Bones and I were the only two down there, and we were agressive. That was great, up until the point where the only move that stuck was one we were in. DAMN IT!!!! NOT AGAIN!!! I got in the first chase group, and ended up 7th across the line having never caught the 5 man break. Opportunity...lost.

That was Saturday, but Sunday was the big prize. The Manhattan Beach Grand Prix. It is a 1.3 mile "hotdog" shaped course. There are 4 turns, but in reality it is 2. You do a 180 at the top and a wider, fast 180 at the bottom. The bottom turn is a fast scary turn, and the last lap is always very stressfull heading into it, but I am getting ahead of myself.

We started with a 5 man team and we were looking good. We scooped up 6 of the ten primes during the race. I got two of them, including a $180 LAS helmet, which can now be found on a very popular website called ebay. Thanks MBGP. About the half way mark some terd from a team in LA who will remain nameless (it ryhms with melons and is also a woman's name) did his best impression of a cat.5 and tacoed himself into the inside curb for no reason at all. This guy has done a total of about 15 pro12 races and never the MBGP as a 2, so he thought he was the poop out there. Throwing elbows, moving around the front like a f&*king patron, until he decided to tangle wheels with another racers and send himself flailing into the curb. Ever seen a grown man's spine bend 90 degrees the wrong way before? It's not pretty. He was carted out in the meat wagon. See you next year, bud. The fun times didn't end there. On the last lap, in the top corner, I was hopelessly boxed in, and yelling at a teammate to get us out. Just then fate smiled down upon us, and crashed four more overzealous racers. That opened a hole and out we shot. Just then, fate smiled once more, and gave me another teammate. Joy of all joy's a free ride to the front. As we started down (yes the approach to the last HAIRPIN TURN is downhill) I bumped my way into 6th wheel, a good spot, but not great. Lady luck is a fickle bitch and all the good luck I had at the top ran out in the final corner. Another slightly overzealous racer decided the fastest way through the final turn was at warp speed on the outside. As a knowledgable cyclist I knew that was not the best of options unless your ultimate goal was to find yourself sprawled out across the pavement leaving bike parts and body parts strewn about as you slide to a stop on the other side of the corner. That is what this moron did. The bad news was, he swerved just as he was about to experience what it feels like to aquire road rash. He swirve was directed under my bike. A quick tap of the breaks and slight adjustment on my part assured me that I was not going to topple over, however, in an effort to keep myself physically well I opened a gap of about 10m to the leaders. Two other guys got past on the inside. Not to worry I passed them and one more for 6th place. All in all a fairly productive MBGP, but not thre result I was dreaming of. It would have been nice to get the win for the boys, but alas it was not meant to be. Drama managed to get my wheel as we headed into the final turn, and he was the unlicky recipient of a trip into the barriers on the far side of the turn thanks to our friend on the ground. No skin lost, just a broken bike. I would prefer to loose some skin rather than break the bike, but that is just me.
That may be it for me and my dreams of being on the podium any more at MBGP (I podiumed there as a 4 and a 3). I am a mere 7 points from being a 1, and there is no chance in hell I am podium material in the pro-1 race. Therefor I bid a fond farwell to my podium days at MBGP, I will miss you. That is until I hang up the fast wheels for some old timer wheels and race with the masters. They won't know what hit them.

Bad Luck?

Bike racing is tough. Not just pysichally, but mentally. It down right sucks some times. Saturday was 100+ degrees in the shade, and 80 minutes of hammering up and down a tough 2 mile course. Lap one, turn one.....ATTACK. Who cares, right? There are always early attacks, but they always get nailed back after a lap at most. Except this one. Seven strong biys got up the road. I thought for sure the race was over, as they got out of sight. Then one by one they started to come off. First was a BearClaw guy. No surprise there. Then a Swami's guy, again no surprise. Then we had the group in our sights again, and slowly clawed them back. Now with 15 minutes left, we were together for the first time since the first lap. Then, as we hit mid way up the hill, BAM!!! My chain dropped. A flurry of explatives left my face, and as I struggled to get my bike back in some semblance of working order, I watched as they throttled it over the top and out of sight. Day over.
I wasn't planning on racing on Sunday, but with the Satruday catastrophe still fresh in my mind, I decided a revenge/redemption race was called for.
Sunday was cooler, only 91 at the start. Lap 1, turn 1, I attacked. Three laps solo, and nothing to show for it. That will teach me. If I had got 3-5 guys to go with we could have gotten somewhere. Instead Rock wouldn't work with 5 Star and vice versa, so it was a bunch sprint. Great. My favorite. I was in the wrong spot headed into the last turn which is a downhill 30+ mph hairpin. Perfect for a State Crit Champ course. I wasn't going to be able to get position for a sprint, and I didn't want to crash and die where I was currently sitting so I sat up and let a few people past. Good thing I did, as about 15-18 guys hit the deck out of the last turn. Even though I was not in the crash, and had time to get to the side, I still almost got taken out by a dazed and confused you lad, who HAD hit the ground, gotten back up and thought he still had a shot. Good thinking rookie.

MBGP!!! Sweet. Love this race. It is a great course for me. Hopefully the team handles the race well, and we get the win. If not I am going to seriously have to consider a team switch next season.

It's Comig Back

Tuesday nights is Eldo nights. A mid-week crit series. It's a "training" race, but it goes fast and there is money on the line, so it is more like a real race than most think. "Training" race or not, it's good times and good competition. Without Eldo I would have about 35-40 race days in my legs each season, with Eldo that number jumps to 60-65. Kick ass.

This week was a good race. It started with a first lap dig. I had a few dreamers with me and after only a few laps I realized we were doomed. They didn't even know which side to peel off to. A guy would do a pull and then come off and put me in the wind. Well done dreamer. Back in the group and I was a little bored. I was standing up looking around, and for some reason making fart noises with my mouth. There are a few women who jump in with us each week, and hold on for dear life. It's great, because what doesn't kill them makes them stronger. One was next to me during my little tiraid and gave me a dirty look. That made me laugh, and then want to put the hurt on her. So I got a dude from Rock I know and we went to the front and put everyone in single file mode for a little while. That will teach her to give me dirty looks. Later I was feeling a bit frisky so I went back up and poked around near the front. We were hitting it pretty good at about 28 or so. Then a few guys ramped it up to the 30 mark. I thought this was a good time to see who would crack first so I took my pull and slowly took us to 34. When I peeled off half a lap later there was only 4 guys with me. Sweet. Rest, recover, and slam it again. Now we are down to just two of us. We got the two to go sign next and drove it home. We didn't have a big gap so I let myself be the sacrafcial lamb and did the final lead out. I came home second and felt pretty good with that effort. There were a few strong boys in the group who choose not to chase because it was me up the road. To those guys I say thanks, and SUCKERS. You guys are good people so don't believe the other stuff you hear about yourselves.

SUMMER IS HERE. It is in teh 90s today and expected to be around 100 on Saturday in La Mirada. Nice. I can race in the heat, just not very well. You know what they say....fake it until you make it. That's what I will be doing. Pray for legs.

That Sucked

We had a collective team BONK this weekend. Holy poop we sucked. I am not sure what is wrong with us, and maybe I am jsut over thinking it, but it has been weeks since we (especially me) have had a good race. Time to get back to basics, and start attacking like mad.

It's now mid-June and normally I would be getting pretty pumped for the TdF, but I am not feeling it this year. Two of the top 3 from last year aren't going to be there, which means whoever wins this year will not have to race against the best stage racing team in the world, Astana. Fair or not, it surely casts an ominous shadow over this years, trek around France (no bike pun intended).

Other cool news, the SoCal kids keep racing well in the domestic front. Young Eric Barlevev, now of Time Pro Team, got his sprint up and going in Harlem yesterday to out-kick Rahsaan and Freddy (amoung others) for the win, only to crash after the line in dramatic fashion. There was a "bike messenger" race as well, so teh question is, did the NYC Bike Snob show up and race or just show up to make fun of the racers? Either way, I am sure it will make for interesting reading on his blog.

Summer is almost here (officially only a few days away), therefore it is time to embrace the higher temps at races and be ready to suffer just that little bit extra.

Coming Back

Last night was a good night. Raced Eldo and had a lot of fun. It wasn't too fast, but I only launched one attack all night, instead of my usual 5 or 6. No, last night I say on Drama and yelled at him to chase and attack all night. I was trying to get him to start racing like a real racer and not pack foder. It worked. He was toast by the end of the night, but I was yelling at him to sprint so he did. He got 4th. I started my sprint from about 25th and got up into about 10th or so. With about 50 more meters I would have been top 5 for sure. For the first time this season I was over 40mph in a sprint. That is pretty damn good, especially out at Eldo.

I think it's about time for me to start racing hard again, and get some more wins. The form is coming back, the legs feel good, and the weather is turning in my favor (hot).
Tons of good races coming up. La Mirada, Manhattan Beach, San Marcos, Aliso Viejo, SLO, Downers. I am not sure about Downers yet. I will have to talk to the guys and see who is heading back and then make up my mind.

Some good things that happened last night:

- I sprinted well
- Drama rode on the front (HOLY SHIT!!!!)
- No crashes
- Drama rode hard enough that he threw up after the race. That is the sign of a good ride.

SHOCKER!!!!

WOW, did I have some bad legs yesterday. The day started out with a 1.5 hour drive with Drama and Pops to beautiful Chula Vista, CA. What a hell hole. The course was not bad if it weren't for the horrific road conditions. Potholes and bumps every where. At about the 30 minute mark I hit a bump so hard my bars slipped, but I am getting ahead of myself. Back to the beginning.

It was a 90 minute "downtown" Chula Vista, CBR State Crit Championship race, and after watching a few races when we got there, I thought for sure something was going to get away. Luckily for me I am at the end of a hard training cycle, so there was really no way to know how the legs would be until it was time to go. I found out very fast....they were bad. I rode in the middle (which is not like me) for a while to get my legs moving. I finally started to feel OK after the bars slipping, so I went to teh front and followed a couple of moves. They were late moves in what was a really fast race. We started with about 70 and ended with about 30. I am sure the hairpin turn around the center divider at one end of the course had something to do with that.

With 4 to go, I was trying to get to the front to help Pops, but he was lined up behind some fast boys, so all I was going to do was get in his way, and I surely didn't have sprinting legs, so I cruised through in about 18th-20th place. Pops got ruined by some good teamwork from another team, and got 3rd. A good result, but not great. He could have won that thing.

The season is starting to wear on people, and you can see some guys have insane form and some are just counting races until the end. It's only June though so there is a long time to go (June, July and August, even a little September). Time to get ready to race.

Good stuff we saw at Chula Vista:
- Two crashes in the hairpin. One of the crashes saw one La Grunge guy take out his teammate. AWESOME!!!
- More messed up wheels than I care to see in one 90 minute crit.
- A crazy bag lady telling me about how one of her kids went to Berkley and the other son was at Stanford. Yeah, right.
- Drama dropped out of ANOTHER race. WTF?
- 5 Star dismantle two separate races and clean up in the State jersey comp.

Great news. Next weekends race is in San Fernando, and is almost an exact duplicate of the course we just raced. CRAP!!!!

That Was Quick

That was a painful day at the races. Either I THOUGHT I had good legs and didn't or it was as fast as my legs think it was. After last years race (with the alley of death), Dana Point has garnered the reputation of being fast, really fast, and I think yesterday was a fast one. Avegage speed....28.6 mph. The throttle went wide open from the moment they said go.

(Me, George, and Charon hitting turn one early on)

By the 20-25 minute mark I started to feel better, but since it is a very technical course, it was not easy to move up. Once at the front, I heard the bell for a prime and figured I would try my luck. Hoping to take 3-4 guys with me I jumped hard into turn 2. I got a big gap by turn 4 and hit the gas again. No one came with me though. I got the prime and kept rolling. Hoping to stay off the front and get 2 or 3 primes I had my head down and I was going hard. I got caught after only a few laps though.

(end of my time off the front)

As the race dragged on at a rediculous pace, I tried to get away again, this time I had company including Karl B. We went hard, got brought back, and then the counter came. I saw Kayle and Chepe go, and yelled for Pops to get on it. He didn't. Time to go back to work. I tried (in vein) to gather the boys for a chase, but only Cam followed me to the front. We got the break back within closing distance only to see teams block and let it go again. There went 1st-6th. Pops had help with the finish and won the field sprint for 7th. A good result that could have been much better had we paid closer attention to who was going and when.

The nice thing about DP was it was a a beautiful day and a killer course. Plus there were so many good looking women walking around. During warm-up in the Oakley tents it was rather difficult to concentrate at times.I was on rollers (not a big deal) and most of the people walking around had never seen someone on rollers. So there I am on my rollers spinning, and they hot women keep coming up right next to me and asking me questions. It was a little rough. On one hand I like talking to hot women, on the other I was scared to death one of these people would hit my front wheel and send me flying. The form is starting to creep back in, so it's time to capatalize on it and get some wins.

Random facts and observations from DPGP:
- The alley of death is gone, but the hay bails from hell have takent their place, along with a chain link fence on PCH. Not fun.
- Karl B won the 30+ and got 5th in the p12. He is an animal.
- Charon finished a really fast race. There is hope yet.
- My commute home post race: 13 minutes. Sweet.