On Sunday morning, I kept my continuous streak of bike races alive for 2008. I rolled out of bed at 4:30 and fired up the internet for some live Paris-Roubaix watching. This was to be my first race at home for a long time. I’ve done 9 races this season already, and spring is just now starting in La Grande. Since Cherry Pie I’ve been away every single weekend, driving for hours and hours. Throw in a 20 hour trip to SoCal and you end up with one fatigued me. All last week I was in a foggy state of delirium that started when I got back from Willamette. So today’s race was kind of refreshing.
It’s amazing what you can get done in a single day when you’re not away racing. I watched Paris-Roubaix live, rode my bike for 3 hours, washed and vacuumed my truck, fixed a toilet, went to Wal-mart, and ordered a few parts for my new bike build project. That now takes care of all the second priority items on my list, so now I can get back to racing again next weekend at Tour de Waitsburg Waitsburg.
Oh, and how did Willamette go? My return to Eugene was just as I expected: miserable drizzle and endlessly wet pavement. A few highlights? Friday’s race had a wicked pace going on the penultimate climb by Mary’s Peak. H-B was driving the train and I ended up 3rd wheel (mostly by default). When I began feeling the pressure, I found inspiration by thinking back to my recent success at holding a wheel on Market Ln. Over the previous few weeks, I had some regular encounters with a guy on a red bike. He’s very fast. He goes so fast I can’t even pull through because the wind hits like a brick wall at 30+ mph. His bike looks really heavy, and is made of steel with some plastic aesthetic features. I’m usually cross-eyed trying to keep up with him, so the brand name isn’t clear to me. Something like Monda or Hondo? It definitely isn’t as pretty as the H-B Ridley I was following at Willamette but the rider is stronger. If I can hang with Motonda, I certainly can ride a mortal’s wheel. Sure enough, H-B ran out of gas before the top of the climb at Willamette but a lot of damage had occurred to the field. El-train was still there the the lead group. By the time we got to the final climb the race was a procession line of zombies. That is, all but one rider with Hammer on his sleeve and thunder in this thighs who crushed us by riding the whole course by himself, even throwing in some extra riding when he missed a turn.
Saturday at Willamette was a rest day. I went out for a short ride and ran into a bunch of people riding the same horrible road over and over again. Those Eugenian riders are crazy. What intrigued me more was the proximity of this ride to a place called “The Bridge.” I rode by a few times to recall the memories of my youth. Featured in the book In Your Face Basketball, The Bridge is where legends are born like Chief, Do Me, Girly, It’s-Been-Awhile, and Box Car. My friends and I spent many Saturday evenings running these courts.
Sunday’s forecast was hail and rain. I was very disappointed that we saw none of this during the race, but the road surface was wet. The descents off of Wolf creek where treacherous with loose gravel and wet roads. I watched riders crash into embankments, dive roll onto pavement, and Pete Rose slide a corner. After all the carnage from climbing and descending, El Train and I were there at the bottom in a group of about a dozen when I decided to go at the last 30k alone. I lasted almost 30 minutes before thunder decided to rain on my parade. He closed down the gap in the same amount of time the lead car could write: “50″ . . . “40″ . . .”25.” I felt good and wanted to go again later, but my legs cramped on me.
El-train rode a fantastic race. Congrats to him. As for me, I enjoyed the riding there. A couple of the climbs may rank as high as Category 2 in difficulty. They definitely weren’t as steep as The Cats (2 weeks ago, see post “Hors Cats“). Two times we went over the top of the Wolf Creek climb on Sunday, which definitely required the descending deftness of a cat. Two times Power Jach hit the deck this weekend, so he might want to study the technique of a cat too. Congrats to Jach also, he’s on fire. After Waitsburg, I’m going to build in some good recovery to avoid the two catastrophic sicknesses I had last year. I’m going to categorize my priorities and refocus in an attempt to catapult my riding career forward. It will also be nice to spend a few more weekends at home with my family, two dogs, and cats (2 of them).
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