Blather on Bicycling

While the rest of the sports world has their own silly March Madness, I was at the Slammer in Boise this weekend for some real bike racing madness. . .and my associates and I had some outstanding results. My Lactic Acid teammates were great with Milt winning the Masters B race and Mike not far behind. In my Cat 3 race, Darin was absolutely superb covering attacks all day, allowing me to concentrate on the more important contenders.

Then, there were my homeboys. The orange team from La Grande was representing the UC. Bartel laid waste to the Cat 4 field, which got me jacked up for my race. I followed up with a 4th place finish, but the real race for me was watching Austin and JJ all day. The group was spitting out riders forward and backward all race. The George’s Bode guys had a number of riders who were active the entire race, either wheel sucking or attacking. My legs felt awesome the entire race, so I’ll be replicating the short taper technique I used this week in the future. When we got to the top of that tiny hill the final time, we finally had a break that dropped the GC leader and I pulled out my hammer. We had a group of about 5, including 1 sucker, but I was taking about every other turn because I didn’t think we were going fast enough for me to stretch out the clock. The 1:30 gap to the 3-man break (which included my teammate Darin) closed very quickly. I was so glad to have a friendly in the group. The problem was that we caught them right at the final turn, and there were 4 bogeys there that were content to ride their tricycles to the finish. I had to pull the group to the line because I had to put time into the GC leader. I was happy to finish 4th, but make up enough time to take over the GC. It was a good race all around, and I enjoyed meeting some new guys and testing my legs in my first road race of the year.   

I just got back from the Jason Broom Time Trial in Boise. George’s was up to their usual race ”organization” chaos. One thing I’ve learned is to expect the unexpected at their races. In the end, a race always happens and it’s usually a pretty good race, but trying to plan a personal race day schedule is an exercise in futility. I am always impressed by how quickly they get results up at the race, and online after the race. The spondoro.com timing system they use is terrific.

My race time was solid, but my legs weren’t thumping like I know they can. My lungs felt good, but the pedals just weren’t turning. Austin Forbes put in an impressive time, so he’ll be the man to beat in the Cat 3 races. The ride with the guys from La Grande after the event was fun. My shoes got exposed to the air for the first time this year. I even notice a sub-knicker burn line. Hopefully this line moves up my legs soon.