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.
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