Blather on Bicycling

It was an anticlimactic ending to the George’s Series for me in Emmett-Roubaix, but memorably nonetheless. I’m sure glad to see the culmination of the series and hold my position of 2nd on the GC.

We Cat 3’s ride the first part of races as a club group ride in the Boise races. We’re kind of lazy because we all know we have huge engines under the hood and early attacking would be futile. So, when someone wants to stop for a bathroom break, we stop. And, when someone flats we all stop too. We took a couple bathroom breaks early in the race and also considered letting the Cat 4 group pass since they were obviously racing, unlike us. After a few practical jokes and a little tempo riding by a couple guys we decided to race when we reached Bill Burns.   

I was less than brilliant on the gravel stretch. The club was still together, because we were still in no-drop mode leading up to the Roubaix stretch. I had some teammates there and we were up front on the gravel. Austin and JJ exploded past me on the other side of the road. In turn, I got bogged down in a bad line went into some soft soil around a corner. The race was immediately scattering everywhere. A mountain of gravel was between me and Austin and I couldn’t get over to their better line. Fortunately, a train of 3 led by 2 of my teammates came storming by in time for me to latch on, and they were in a good groove. From there is was survival for me as we were fishtailing everywhere but Darin rode it like a champ.

We came out of the gravel in fairly good shape, only about 30 seconds down on Austin and JJ, who were catching their teammate Engin who had already gained some time in an earlier solo break. Normally, this would have been a good situation because we had 3 teammates, a passenger, and one other helper. We should have been able to close the gap, but I found myself with no energy. I can’t fully explain why, because usually that is the time of the race when I feel best. I’ve noted a few reasons that may explain why, but the bottom line is that the Bode guys made a good move and they were super strong today. My legs simply weren’t turning and I couldn’t give my normal thrust to drive the chase. In the end, we closed it down to about 20 seconds before the climb, but I already knew I would be a dud when we hit Old Freezout. It was sure nice having some teammates there for the race, and they rode very well for a memorable race. 

David Monnig was very impressive in the Category 4 race, with a 4th place. Congratulations to him. And, Bartel dusted off his bike for his monthly ride and beat most of the guys. Whit pulled an El-train by flatting before the final climb and still finished 21st.

Also, as I’m looking at the results from the race and I see that 12 riders are notes as going off course. However, I don’t see 1′20″ penalties assessed. In fact, it indicates “GC unaffected.”

This past weekend I rolled over the hill to race the Tour de Waitsburg Waitsburg. Continuing on the theme of revolutionary race preparation started by BriTel, I decided to get sick for this race. After surviving every form of sickness thrown at me by my coworkers, family, and students this winter, I was beginning to think I had a super immune system. Then, late last week I developed a upper respiratory infection that hit full force for Friday’s first race. I think I spent too much time out in the cold after the TT on Tuesday evening, admiring the turkey my coworker bucked on my property.

Since this was my first experience with racing while sick, I can now confidently say that you can’t race at 100% while sick. Weird. Before Friday’s race, Rad Doc shared with me that he too was trying the BriTel technique by working solid for 2 weeks and not riding. Although, I’m fairly certain that his interpretation of not riding is reducing training from all-day rides to just half-day rides. In any case, he had the BriTel mojo going because he made the very select leading group of 6 that eventually won the race. The problem was, the El-Train mojo struck him just before the final climb and a flat took him out of contention. During all of this, I was heaving at the tail end of the group. I haven’t breathed that hard all year. Somehow, I managed to get in the 2nd chase group of 6 that held the gap to about 45 seconds, but we couldn’t manage to close it down. I thought it was the most “fun” race of the weekend. I quickly returned to camp for a cool down (i.e. chills), nasal congestion, and hardcore sleep. Saturday’s road race was awfully dark. Maybe I was slipping out of consciousness, because I don’t remember seeing much during that race and I was wearing my amber locs that usually illuminate everything. The final climb was a very scenic venue to finish a race. I even remember seeing the devil somewhere. At the end of the 4-race weekend of hell, I finished 21st on the GC. I’ve very beat down, but I feel better now than I did before the races.  

El-Train was also there, and he bested half the field in his first Cat 4 stage race and didn’t even have any mechanical issues–for once. Nice work on this. Also, the Boise racing blokes confirmed they’re top class racers in the northwest, with very high results in each category.

A couple years ago I tried doing the Tour of Walla Walla and claimed I’d never do it again. Well, I found myself there again because I couldn’t resist such a close by race. I’m very impressed by how much the race has improved. The organizers selection of courses was superb and the results were presented promptly. The race support and volunteers were top notch. Also, the field included strong racers from all over the Northwest, including some Canucks. Great race. I plan to be rolling into Waitsburg again next year.