What Happened????? (part deux)

I like to use pictures as metaphors. Let's take this picture above/to the left and break it down as it relates to the HORRID weekend I had on the bike.

Take a look at the picture. Study it. What is the first thing you notice? The size of the wave? That represents the field at the San Marcos curcuit race. It was a big field for that race. Usually it is a pretty small field and usually it is 175 degrees out there. It wasn't hot this year, but the wind was blowing pretty good. That wind in San Marcos is represented by the wind blowing this wave face up and holding it open. If you haven't surfed before wind blowing up the face of a wave makes the wave stand up taller and when it does finally break it makes the wave hollower and break with more power. This wave is going to absolutely detonate soon as you can see. We will get to that in a minute. Just remember to keep that thought in the back of your mind as you read on. Like I said the field started with about 70 or so racers, and there were some top names out there including Kyle Gritters, Rory Sutherland, and Neil Shirley to name a few. To make matters worse, they all had teammates with them. Right from the start this was not looking to be another typical race at San Marcos. We started fast (as did the surfer in the picture) and we never slowed down until the end or when we hit the metaphorical wall. In my case it was the end of the race, for some teammates it was the wall. The race started early with attacks. The greatest part was I felt like complete poop for the first 30 minutes or so. Then I felt a little better, but by then the break was gone, the peleton was shrinking every time we hit the climb and the wind seemed to be blowing harder every lap. I was not having fun.
Back to the picture. Even if you don't surf you can clearly see this guy is about to have a really bad day. He has buried the entire nose of his board at the bottom of the wave as he was attempting to drop in. Some of you who do surf know without a doubt know which this wave is. If you don't I will tell you. It is the imfamous Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu. Most everyone knows of or has heard of Pipe and let me tell you the wave is scary and mean and, there is only about 4 feet of water under that guy. Like I said he is about to have a very bad day. His eminate trip onto the reef is mirrored by me on the bike when the break got up the road and then we started to chase only to have the entire race fall apart and never come back together. I ended up suffering like a dog for a while longer until I finally started to feel better near the end, and that was only because we had slowed down in what they were calling the "peleton". What they should have called it was the gruppeto. We were slow and sad.
In the end I tried a Hell Mary on the last lap only to get caught at the base of the short climb. I sat up and cruised on home, safe and without much to celebrate, much like our surfer in the picture above. Our hero on the surfboard, I am happy to report, was also OK. He got lucky and didn't hit the reef (or the pavement in my case), and came away with a better understanding of Pipeline (or racing with the big boys for me).

Only a few weeks left in my season. Some guys tried talking me into racing in San Fransisco to quailfy for Vegas, but I am going to be on the East Coast that same weekend, which was a relief to me. I am cooked right now and it is taking all my motivation to suit up for these last 3 weeks of racing.
Until next week.

So Much Stuff

Too much stuff has been going on since my last post. We'll go through this chronologically for everyone.

July 12- Aliso Viejo GP of Cycling;
Got there to set up and as luck would have it our police escort for road closures was late. BY 30 MINUTES!!! The day was starting off badly. We got the roads closed, but they would not give the OK to start the 5's. We were 10 minutes late getting started. Not the end of the world, but once we were underway it was game on. We got the bugs worked out by the second race, and by the time the men's pro started it had already been a great day, and the Sheriff and Mayor were already talking about how to make the 2nd Annual even better. They will have to do that without me. No way I am going through all that again. Can't do it. The race was good though, and everyone seemed to really enjoy the course. We may have to sell the event to someone for them to run.

July 13- Long Beach crit:
I got guilted into racing this stupid crit. After being on my feet for 14 hours on Saturday putting on a race, there was no way I was going to be good at this race. Too many hammerheads showed up as well. Still they said go and I did. Three damn laps into and I am in a break with about 13 other guys. Too many, and I knew it. The wind was blowing really hard, so the pros put us in the gutter with no where to hide and hit it at about 30mph. Thanks guys. The big group slowly shrunk until I was the last to get popped. Once back in the peleton the break was not pulling away. My solution? Ride fast tempo and bring them back. Other teams decided they could bridge a guy over. Jackasses. Finally the break was gone and I got in the second break of the day. About 6 of us, and we were working well together. The break lapped what was left of the field and soon caught us. No problem, right? I'll just sit in the last few laps and wait for the sprint. Nope. Back in the gutter, back to 30+mph now. Guys were gapping like mad, and one too many times I had to close it up. I pulled out about two laps AFTER my legs decided it was time to pull out. I was cooked. Only 19 or so guys finished a perfectly flat crit. Amazing.

Eldo- Same old story, only slower this time. We cruised. I think everyone was tired from the weekend. Either way it was boring as hell. I launched a few attacks, but they were brought back. I did some lead out on the last lap, then sat up and took it easy thru the line. The lead out was good though, and we put Charon in first and Tommy in second. Good night.

July 20th- SLO:
This is a great course. All on the streets of downtown San Luis Obispo. From the s/f we take two quick turns as we start a slight rise up to the Mission. We pass on a brick walk way in front of/thru the mission and back onto the city streets. It's a bit tight and sketchy but fun. A few more quick turns and a long slightly downhill finishing stretch. Some big boys were there for this race. Tony Cruz, Neil Shirley, a gaggle of Strawberry's, Successfulliving.com, Dan Halloway....you get the idea, it was fast. I felt good, and let the early attacks run their course. Once I felt the field was getting tired I attacked. One strawberry went with. No doing. It was apparent a bunch sprint was in my immediate future. Considering the pedigree of the field I was not a favorite in anyone's book. Still I had OK position until an ass hat from Swami's over cooked turns 1 and 2 and crashed. I slammed brakes got through and had to chase back on. Out of position and contention my day was over. I did win $50 in a prime, so at least I got dinner paid for. Either way it was a lot of fun. The racing was a side bar any way. I was up there to relax with the family and have some fun. Mission accomplished.

The season is winding down fast. Only a handfull of races left. Have to get one more win this season and all my goals will be complete.

There are some dumb people out there

There are a lot of really stupid people out there. A racer in a master's race this past weekend is one of them. Not in contention for the win this crusty old racer fell off the back of the group on the last lap. Whether it was to answer his cell phone or whether he was able to answer because he got dropped on the last lap is unclear. The one thing that is clear is that he finished the last lap, crossed the line, hence finishing the race all while talking on his CELL PHONE!!!! Are you kidding me? Most of the racers I see have a hard enough time talking to orther racers two feet away from them during a race, much less a cell phone conversation.
It is a sad day in US racing when a race official has to remind the following races they are not allowed to talk on their phone during a race.

Either way the racing over the weekend and on Tuesday were crap for me, and not that great for the team either. This weekend is my teams race and it is going to be AWESOME!!! We are going to have a special cell phone race, where the racers have to talk on their cell phones the entire time.

One of these things is not like the others.....

This weekend was fast, and fun. Not crazy fast, but pretty quick. My form is good again, and after a leisurely ride on Monday I felt good as I headed off to Eldo for the Tuesday night showdown. One thing to remember, Sunday was a major NRC event. Every pro team had their A-Team there and apparently some of them decided to stick around for a few days and get some training in around sunny SoCal. Back to Tuesday evening.

I roll in very early and get an hour+ worth of laps in. As I entered the parking lot one thing made itself very apparent to me...this was not going to be a typical Eldo night. Let's do a quick run down of some of the suspects perusing the parking lot. Strickler (mulitple National Championships and all around hammer head), Ryan Barrett (former NetZero Hero, current UT resident, and all around hammer head), Rahsaan Bahati (Rock Racing powerhouse sprinter, winner of MBGP), John Cantwell (Jittery Joe fast man), and some guy name Tony Cruz (not sure what his deal is). Add in the usual fast guys and you can see where this is headed. Lap 1, turn 1, off goes Barrett. Tommy was in the 7 man group so I was sitting in. I knew it wasn't going anywhere, as it only had Barrett in there of all the really strong boys.

It came back (told you), and then it was attack, go fast, attack, go faster, attack, go fast. Notice the absence of the term "caught and slowed down"? That's because we didn't do that. We caught and kept on trucking which meant the guys who were firing off bullets weren't getting very far when they did, and were back in the group rather quickly. I found this Tony fellow moving up and decided he looked like a good wheel to sit on. WRONG!!! We proceeded to the front where he decided the pace was a bit too slow for his liking and upped the speed to about 33. Arm flick, and it was my turn to pull through. I did, and when I looked back it was near detonation. So both Tony and I slipped back a ways, recouped and as luck would have it (I can boast I new it was coming) Tony did it again. Hoping for a complete denoation this time I pulled through again and sure enough, KA-BOOM!!!! Guys were popping and gapping all over the place. We kept rolling much to my shagrin. A quick look around and we had about 7. Me, all the above mentioned fast men, plus Nate, and a few others. Soon the few others were gone, and to my surprise Nate went bye-bye as well. At this point I would invite you to re-read the title of this post. I'll give you a minute......done? Good. Now please look at the picture below.



Which one of these is not like the others? I will give you a hint.....IT'S ME!!! After 3 laps with these maniacs, I was very surprised to see a group of 15 or so catch us. The peleton was now completely over it and about a half hour behind us. The good news was I had Tommy and Kirk in the group now. My legs were toast, and I told Tommy we should make sure the pace stayed high to ward off any future attacks. No doing. He said they pacelined like crazy men (the entire group) just to catch us. Then asked what the hell we were doing up there, and how were we going that fast? Beats me, I was cross eyed almost the entire time.

It came down to a sprint and I got stuck on the front with 1k to go. The group surged I tried to get a good spot, but my legs were done, so I left it to the others, and as luck would have it Tommy got 2nd.

Interesting facts from Eldo:
1. Average speed was 28.9 mph
1. We put 3 guys in the top 15 out of the break
1. No one carshed (huge plus when we are that tired)
1. Bahati tried for a solo victory only to come up a 1/2 lap short

4th of July festivities this weekend. Don't blow any of your fingers off with fire crackers.