Ok, It's really over now

Now it's over. I prematurely called the road season done a week or so ago, but there was one more Eldo to go. I showed up for this last "race" hopeing to stay upright and collect my free Mexican dinner afterward courtesy of CBR. The race was its usual boring event, same as all the rest this season. There are just enough guys out there to chase, but those same guys are not strong enough to get in a break. Defensive racing sucks. So I stayed true to my word and didn't let the competitive juices over-power my brain, and I sat on the back in the safety zone. Also true to my word, which was to be on the back or off the front all night, I went to the front and tried my hand at a few attacks. Got some daylight on one of them, but the two Fred's with me were cooked from sitting on my wheel and couldn't pull threw. Thanks guys.

Once back in the group I found my way to the lantern rouge position, and readied myself for a nice easy spin to the finish. Tommy was in the running for 2nd place overall so he pulls up next to me and asks me if I have anything left. Do I have anything left? Let's see I have launched two boring attacks that went no where, and the rest of the time I was tacked on to the very back of the group, yeah I think there is some gas in the tank still, what do you need? Time for a lead-out. I moved my way up to about the 15th or so position and settled in for the last 2 laps. The front guys didn't understand how a last lap is supposed to work and started to slow and bunch. Some yelling from me got them sorted out and we were rolling again. I talked the front 4 or 5 through the last half lap, then with about 600m to go I took over. At that point we were at about 30mph...way to slow. I came through and picked it up. Not to quick to gap guys though. I gave a look and we were back to single file at about 32. Then I picked it up some more, then some more, then I hit the final turn at 35 and holding. Out of the turn, and out of the saddle for one last kick and then I pulled off. No one came through. They were in their drops and sprinting and still not coming around. Pathetic. Turns out the lead-out was a little to fast for some and guys opened huge gaps. Oh well. My boys were not in position (nice work a-holes), so they only managed to crack the top5 by sheer determination.

The season was over. Done. Time to relax, have a beer, and a burriot. Only thing is CBR "forgot their checkbook" and there would be no free food. That was the only reason I came up for the last one. Damn it. I had dinner with Drama, Bones and Pops anyway. Time to start thinking about next year. Lots of guys calling to get on the team, but not too many that I want. At this point there are only a few guys I would take on, and the rest I would pass on and ride with 6 next season.

I am looking forward to NOT riding my road bike for a while too. I have been out on the mountain bike a lot the last 2 weeks, and that has been fun. I am going to do a mountain bike race at the end of September in Santa Barbara, which should be a blast. I have never done one of these races before, so it should be interesting.

So what does winter hold in store for me, not a lot. Training, some Como St. rides, some travel, and maybe some time on the snow (Mammoth). I'll keep you posted.

I don't want to CRASH!!!

The season is over....except for a few mid-week crits. There is money for the overall points leaders, of which I am not one, but a few teammates are. The races are competative and can be pretty fast. There are always about 70 or so, and it is a 1-3 race. This time of year is when we get the 4's who have just upgraded and sometimes they get in a bit over their heads especially near the front, so I made sure they knew their place early on. Plus, as I stated earlier, I am not in the points race, as I use this race as a training tool, not a "real" race.
Most Tuesday's out there I do intervals basically by attacking over and over. This week was no different. I attacked and attacked. I used to think it was the older "masters" out there that caused the race to be so defensive, and they are certainly part of that racing strategy. They race so they can win, and for them that means a group sprint and defensive racing. But it's not JUST them as I used to think. It's the 3's. They don't have the engine to go in a break and hold it, but 6 of them can chase for a period of time and not let the break get away. Throw one or two of those 3s in the break of 6 and you have a recipe for a bunch sprint.
On my second attack I had two good cat.2 riders on my wheel. Yet when I pulled off at 33mph, they couldn't comne through. THEN WHY DID YOU GO IN THE FIRST PLACE!?!?!?!? DAMN IT!!! Same old story as the rest of the year out there, attack, get brought back, attack again.....field sprint.
So we get down to 1 to go, and for some reason things got really aggressive. Guys were slamming into each other like it was a NASCAR race. I saw one guy stuff himself into a tiny little hole 20 guys back. Why? It didn't help him at all, all he did was make a dangerous move. I crashed on Aug. 29, 2006 out there, really hard. We were at about 30mph and some idiot in front of me overlapped and went down, taking 20 or so others with him. I suffered a broken hand and some really gnarly road rash (but the bike was fine). It really put a dent in my winter training and I started the season way out of optimal shape. As we hit 1/2 a lap to go this week I was getting banged around something fierce, which wouldn't faze me usually, but then I remembered, there was no money and no points for me on the line, so I sat up and went to the back. If that was a weekend race for money, I am hitting right back and holding my spot, but out there on a Tuesday....No thanks. I have one more of these races to go, and then I am truley done racing road until Boulevard in Feb. 09.

I did get on the dirt yesterday for a mountain bike ride. That was a blast. Haven't ridden dirt in a long time (8 months or so). Climbing wise I was good, but coming down was not so good. I was all over the trails, and my cornering sucked something fierce. I will ride some more dirt over the next month or so, and the cornering will come back.

So, one more mid-week to go and lots of surfing and mountain bike riding over the next 6 weeks. Should be a fun break before winter training begins. Not looking forward to those training blocks of intervals at all.

The Fat Lady Has Sung

It's over. My season has finally ended, and not a race too soon. My right leg is screwed up, not to mention I am just plain tired. The season started with Boulevard on Feb. 3 and has not stopped. All told more than 50 race days in the legs, and for a guy with a job, that is a lot. Riding my bike is not my job, just fun, so to get that many race days in the legs is really good. Some good results this season too. I got on 4 podiums and won a great road race in NorCal. To win a road race was a major goal of mine this season. I can check that one off. I did lay a giant terd at SDSR, and that annoys me, but you can't be good at every race.

There are still a few El Dorado crits left I will do, but that is a pretty brainless activity. I don't plan on getting hurt at this point in the season because some Fred who is new to our ranks decides he is the biggest and baddest, and crashes half of the field out at 30+mph. It happened to me a few years ago, and it isn't going to happen again.

Yesterday was Nationals. I am no expert, but I am pretty sure I should have trained for that. The last time I did a 100 mile race was the beginning of June. So the legs were not quite prepared for a race that fast and that long (120 miles). The Strawberries brought about 37 guys to the race including about 4 of the top 5 picks to win it all. We went really fast and I got popped at the half way mark. Not too surprising really. I hung out in the feed and watched some racing. It was really fun to actually watch racing again. The break went but it was too big, and the attacks from that group started on lap 4. Two Strawberries and Thurlow finally got away, and the berries played Thurlow pretty well and took first and second. Well done to them. They had a great day and rode the race perfectly. Congratulations to them, now go back to NorCal and leave us to our Industrial Park Crits.

So here are some random things that happened this season that made it really interesting:

- Saw a guy crash in a feedzone, by himself, no one around him for a 10m diameter. Tried to put a bottle away and hit a bottle on the ground and crashed. Lift your head up in the feedzone pal.

- Missed the winning break at SDSR. Thought I had a man in the break. I suck.

- Got dropped badly at Redlands. That was a bad day.

- Saw a guy slide out next to me in the last turn at Manhattan, almost in slow motion, but I stayed up and got 6th.

- Upgraded to a cat.1 (nice)

- Finished Boulevard and I wasn't dead last.

- There are WAY TOO MANY pros living in SoCal now. They all need to move back to Boulder.

- There are a lot of really gorgeous female bike racers now. Both pro and amateur. It's a good thing.

- Speaking of women, saw a woman crash in a sprint, by herself, by simply throwing her bike side to side too hard.

It's time to get in the ocean and surf a little more, and hit the mountain bike a little more too.

It's almost over, yet....

(Tommy on the ground with me riding up to him as Nick runs to help)

The season is almost over, only one BIG race left for me, and many other racers, yet we still find a ways to crash. For the most part this season has been pretty safe, and I think that is due to some really fast racing. The faster we go the safer it is, usually. At some point you just can't go any faster through conrners and be safe (ask Fast Freddy about Elk Grove and the Kelly Benefites team). So this past Sunday we lined up for the last CBR Bar Series event. CBR really took it on the chin this season, so no money for the day's placings was not a big deal, and they only gave out money for the CBR BAR Series finale. Chris and Vera are great and I was really happy to hear they will be back for another year in 2009.

We started off with about 60 guys (and a few ladies) and I am sure only 30 or less finished. We shed people from the start, until finally, with about 5 or 6 laps to go, the split happened. About 14 or 15 guys scampered off the front and esentially it made for two groups of about 15 or so on the road. Tommy was in the lead group trying to protect his 2nd place overall. All he had to do was finish in the top 18, which meant just cruise across the line in the group he was in. But sprinters will be sprinters. Meanwhile back in my group, I was having a talk with some friends about the season and this coming weekend. I came out of tunr 4 (the last turn) and noticed one guy laying the gutter from another team. Then I noticed another guy in the middle of the road about 150m from the finish. Upon closer inspection it was Tommy. That's right, for those of you who are a little slow on the math, let me help you crunch these numbers. There were two crashes in the last 400m in one of the last races of the season, and there were only 15 guys in the group. Even less by the time Tommy cased it.
So the smart thing to do would be to sit up and keep yourself safe (no one was going to beat that Italian Olympic track sprinter anyway (yes there were two Italian National Track guys out there preparing for the Olympics)) and maintain your 2nd, and he couldn't jump over the current 1st place rider. Nope he decides to sprint. Details of what happened are sketchy but it appears he may have tangled wheels with an SDBC rider in front of him. As much as it pains me to say it, it is most likely his fault (Tommy's) that he fell. It is the responsabililty of the rider to watch the guy in front of him. If the SDBC guy came off his line that is a different story, but from the series of pictures it doesn't look like he did. Just one of those sprinting screw-ups that happen some times. Not unlike that of our good friend Eric Barlevev's crash AFTER the line in Harlem.

Tommy was OK, just lost a lot of skin. I encouraged him to end his season right then and there, but he insists of racing this Satruday. I won't be racing with him. Instead I will be going on a warm-up ride and getting ready for Sunday. Sunday will be the 189K National Elite RR Championships. As luck would have it the race is about 10 miles from my house this year, so I will be racing. Not sure if I will be finishing, but I will line up. It may not be the most ideal course for Nationals, but I can tell you right now, it will not be easy. The climb up Jamboree is going to be rough, and the race will blow apart on Portola in the wind. It's going to be a tough one for sure. That will most likely be the end of my season....on the road. I plan on racing a few mountain bike races for shits and giggles. The Club is close with another team in the points title, so if I can jump in a race or two and get them some points I will.

Hopefully the next time I write something on here I am the new National RR Champ, or at least I can say I finished.

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.