Stage racin'--lows to highs...
Today I post in red to express my emotion of the last week. I ended my last post with rising spirits due to my recent confidence that I have potential to due well in the road racing circuit. Over the last week, I have had a difficult time recovering from the taxing road events of last weekend. I felt like the last month of fighting sickness and inconsistent riding has taken its toll on my racing abilities. I even felt more of the wrath as I started Stage 1 of this weekends endeavour of the Edgar Soto Memorial Stage Race. This is a big deal to me, since 1) I've never been much of a roadie and 2) I am riding solo w/o teammates. Riding solo isn't such a big deal in most races, but it's tough lining up against larger teams that have earpieces so they can talk to team managers and other members of their squad. Oh well, I guess I don't have that luxury as a mtn biker trying to keep fit racing some road events.
Anyways, back to the TT that started on Friday night. I felt like someone put lead soles on my shoes and pumped concrete in my legs as I warmed up. Luckily I had the Flyte set up well with TT bars and a little forward tilting seatpost so I had some advantage over just the plain road bike runners. I guess that is as far as the luck would go as I missed my start by 1 minute, so when I actually rolled onto the course I had to battle the fact that no matter what my time was going to be 1 minute more than what I actually put in. My Polar showed me harnessing a 17:11 time where the officials sheet shows 18:11, which set me at 41st place after the 1st stage and 2:44 seconds off the yellow jersey holder, Cesar Grajales of Navigators; the guy who beat Lance up Brasstown Bald a couple years ago in the Tour De GA. Yeah, you read correctly...that's what I have to line up against.
Stage 2 today brought out the lactic feast of a 75 min criterium in Brentwood. I felt better and the concrete must have ran its course thru the night b/c my legs felt light and nimble. Sweeeeet! The race unfortunately started at 1pm in the hottest part of the day, but it had to be done. Oddly enough the race seemed a bit easy as my HR settled into a steady tempo and I didn't have to work to hard to stay in the front 1/3 of the group. I made sure to do this b/c at one point when I slipped back; I was almost tangled in a crash in a straight-a-way. Odd I know, seems like people could handle their bikes going straight and have a little more difficulty in the corners. I knew I felt good as I even had thoughts of proposing to old Lindsey Wilson teammate Todd Shoberg to attack in the tougher part of the course where there were several consecutive corners, since he is an ex-Pro Sobe mtn biker that can handle his bike. Yeah I'm giving you props Shoberg! Anyways never had the right moment, b/c as I tried to move up in the final few laps I got edged into the orange cones blocking off a construction entrance. It was amazing how quick riders got away from me when I nailed 2 in a row. I didn't care...it allowed me to basically coast into the top 15 riders with only 3 laps to go. The next thing I know; I'm on the front leading a group of 50 riders single file. I slowly let off the throttle knowing I don't need to blow up in the last laps. Then Bianchi/Hincappie Pro, Geri Mewett, comes around and I decide to fall in behind as we get the bell lap for 2-to-go. Now the pace increases as we chase one guy that is chasing the lead group of 3 riders. As Geri pulled off with 5 corners to go on the last lap, I was forced to make a decision; trust in my new confidence that I can ride my bike as well as anyone in the group or fall back b/c I don't want to chance blowing up and barely finishing. I chose option 1 as I threw down a few extra watts torqueing the bars side-to-side. I realed-in our lonely 4th place chaser and as I glanced over my shoulder...I had a 5 bike length gap. There I upped the throttle some more up the final rise into the last two corners. More, more, more is all I could think as I rounded the last right turn into the uphill finishing straight. One more look over my shoulder revealed about 10 bike lengths as I clicked a few gears and sprinted across the line. I had won the field sprint and finished 4th overall. Pumped was the emotion to say the least. I had just shocked some people, fellow racers, and myself included. Too bad the promoters are only paying 3 deep, b/c I am out of the general classification for overall time so money would have been the only bonus for me at this point.
Well, besides being a little sunburnt.... I feel great and I'm ready to get hammered in the 55 mile circuit race tomorrow. Goal--stay with the front group so I don't lose any more time, b/c it already appears like a stink according to my overall placing. Off to stretch out the legs and make some pasta for fuel.
Lates for now,
Daniel
Today I post in red to express my emotion of the last week. I ended my last post with rising spirits due to my recent confidence that I have potential to due well in the road racing circuit. Over the last week, I have had a difficult time recovering from the taxing road events of last weekend. I felt like the last month of fighting sickness and inconsistent riding has taken its toll on my racing abilities. I even felt more of the wrath as I started Stage 1 of this weekends endeavour of the Edgar Soto Memorial Stage Race. This is a big deal to me, since 1) I've never been much of a roadie and 2) I am riding solo w/o teammates. Riding solo isn't such a big deal in most races, but it's tough lining up against larger teams that have earpieces so they can talk to team managers and other members of their squad. Oh well, I guess I don't have that luxury as a mtn biker trying to keep fit racing some road events.
Anyways, back to the TT that started on Friday night. I felt like someone put lead soles on my shoes and pumped concrete in my legs as I warmed up. Luckily I had the Flyte set up well with TT bars and a little forward tilting seatpost so I had some advantage over just the plain road bike runners. I guess that is as far as the luck would go as I missed my start by 1 minute, so when I actually rolled onto the course I had to battle the fact that no matter what my time was going to be 1 minute more than what I actually put in. My Polar showed me harnessing a 17:11 time where the officials sheet shows 18:11, which set me at 41st place after the 1st stage and 2:44 seconds off the yellow jersey holder, Cesar Grajales of Navigators; the guy who beat Lance up Brasstown Bald a couple years ago in the Tour De GA. Yeah, you read correctly...that's what I have to line up against.
Stage 2 today brought out the lactic feast of a 75 min criterium in Brentwood. I felt better and the concrete must have ran its course thru the night b/c my legs felt light and nimble. Sweeeeet! The race unfortunately started at 1pm in the hottest part of the day, but it had to be done. Oddly enough the race seemed a bit easy as my HR settled into a steady tempo and I didn't have to work to hard to stay in the front 1/3 of the group. I made sure to do this b/c at one point when I slipped back; I was almost tangled in a crash in a straight-a-way. Odd I know, seems like people could handle their bikes going straight and have a little more difficulty in the corners. I knew I felt good as I even had thoughts of proposing to old Lindsey Wilson teammate Todd Shoberg to attack in the tougher part of the course where there were several consecutive corners, since he is an ex-Pro Sobe mtn biker that can handle his bike. Yeah I'm giving you props Shoberg! Anyways never had the right moment, b/c as I tried to move up in the final few laps I got edged into the orange cones blocking off a construction entrance. It was amazing how quick riders got away from me when I nailed 2 in a row. I didn't care...it allowed me to basically coast into the top 15 riders with only 3 laps to go. The next thing I know; I'm on the front leading a group of 50 riders single file. I slowly let off the throttle knowing I don't need to blow up in the last laps. Then Bianchi/Hincappie Pro, Geri Mewett, comes around and I decide to fall in behind as we get the bell lap for 2-to-go. Now the pace increases as we chase one guy that is chasing the lead group of 3 riders. As Geri pulled off with 5 corners to go on the last lap, I was forced to make a decision; trust in my new confidence that I can ride my bike as well as anyone in the group or fall back b/c I don't want to chance blowing up and barely finishing. I chose option 1 as I threw down a few extra watts torqueing the bars side-to-side. I realed-in our lonely 4th place chaser and as I glanced over my shoulder...I had a 5 bike length gap. There I upped the throttle some more up the final rise into the last two corners. More, more, more is all I could think as I rounded the last right turn into the uphill finishing straight. One more look over my shoulder revealed about 10 bike lengths as I clicked a few gears and sprinted across the line. I had won the field sprint and finished 4th overall. Pumped was the emotion to say the least. I had just shocked some people, fellow racers, and myself included. Too bad the promoters are only paying 3 deep, b/c I am out of the general classification for overall time so money would have been the only bonus for me at this point.
Well, besides being a little sunburnt.... I feel great and I'm ready to get hammered in the 55 mile circuit race tomorrow. Goal--stay with the front group so I don't lose any more time, b/c it already appears like a stink according to my overall placing. Off to stretch out the legs and make some pasta for fuel.
Lates for now,
Daniel
posted by Unknown at 5:09 PM
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