Oct 06 2008
Few blog issues earlier today. Did an upgrade. Hopefully it’ll stick. Might have been issues with the posts I pasted in from Word. I’ll try to keep an eye on it.
Some days I feel like Unfrozen Caveman Blogger. Oh no – did the Internets eat my blog? I don’t know. Because I’m a caveman, that’s just the way I think.
Oct 06 2008
What started off as a relatively quiet and restful weekend slowly and gradually built up to a crazy pace by race time Sunday. Took off for the coast this weekend. The in-laws took the kids a day early in the MoHo which left Rach and I free until Saturday. The ride out was great, especially at rush hour. Rach drove for a change which gave me a little time to zone out on the road to Tillamook. Once we got there, we just sat around and read for the rest of the night.
Saturday we got up and headed over to Cape Lookout where Dan and I were going to take Owen crabbing. The weather was iffy but luckily it held out for the 3 hours we were out there. Took an hour or so to find out where the crabs were but once we did, we caught our limit. Owen was ridiculously excited about it. Good fun. We ate a few that night and I stripped the rest for crab cakes tonight. I can’t wait.
Sunday I wanted to leave the coast by 11 to get back in town by 1-ish. If I left for the race by then, I’d have enough pre-race time to take care of everything.
Well, that didn’t happen. We left a little later and I felt rushed the whole way back. By the time I dropped everyone off at home and got to the course, I had barely 25 minutes to warm-up. Crap.
Squeezed in an abbreviated warm-up in and headed over to the start. Found myself about 8 rows back (each about 7 wide). Slight drizzle at the start and it was starting to get a little colder. I’m glad I kept the arm warmers on.
Don’t need to get into a ton of details here. The course was slick, especially the downhill sections. You didn’t so much ride it but held on for a controlled slide down the hill. The back stretch by the parking area was bumpy as hell. You could have either picked your way through the ruts or just held on tight and powered through. The velodrome…ugh. Lets say I’m glad I grew up on the east coast where I learned to ride my bike on ice.
With this course, the field gets strung out pretty fast. Start position is huge for this race. Passing isn’t impossible but the course is narrow so you usually need to burn a little energy taking a less than ideal line to do it. I felt I was in the front half of the pack by the time we got to the velodrome.
I felt pretty good. The bike held up. The wheels were the shit. I’m sold on the Racing Ralphs. At 35 psi, they hardly slipped at all. Got a little chain suck on the last lap but it held off.
I spent most of the race slowly moving up. I had a pattern where I’d see a group up ahead, catch up, stick with them for a quarter lap or so and then eventually pass. I was working hard but not killing myself. Had I been up in the pack a little more around faster riders, I would have been able to hold a higher pace. But I wasn’t.
Got caught by the A’s with about a lap to go. That’s going to be a minor goal of mine this year: don’t get caught.
Still, I’m settling in to the 60 minute race. I ended up 26th out of 73 or so. Not bad but not great either. Nice to know I still have a little bit left in the tank.
Did the usual post-race stuff at home; cleaned up, etc. There was grass everywhere. Went for a nice hour spin ride this morning on the way into work which felt great. Got the kinks out and I’ll be ready to get back to it tomorrow morning.
As a postscript – there were hecklers by the pits, somewhere around or in between the Ironclad group and the bicycleattorney.com tents. You should go back to heckling school. Better yet, stay in the shallow end by heckling the beginners or the C’s. You have no business trying to work the A race. Really. It was embarrassing listening to you