Just about everyone got into a break today at Cherry Pie. Those that saved their energy for the finish (the smart ones) crushed us on the final hill. Everything went right for me. The sun came out. I wore shorts. My bike was shockingly fast (I don’t remember it being that fast last year). There were no crashes. I got in the best break of the day. In the end it was mostly all together and I finished with the group with no impressive result. But who cares? Nobody checks results anyway. Since when did Corvallis become a winter destination? The forecast was saying snow the day before. It got sunny and hot very quickly and clothes were being discarded everywhere before the race. The Pro1-2 race scene is looking better in Oregon this year with a more even balance of teams. During the race, I’m surprised at how many people got hurt the first time we went over the hill. That’s when I decided to jump up to the 2 guys out front. Before long we had some reinforcements that came up that got me very impressed with our chances, especially since we were going into a very stiff headwind. I’m not sure how long we were off, but it was a good effort. I was pretty active after we got caught too, but with a tailwind to the finish, nothing was going to happen. I may haven gotten a center line violation too! At least I can take something home in the results book. My racing style largely mimics the actions and words of the great philosopher Jens Voigt: “If you try to win, you might lose. If you don’t try to win you lose for sure.” That’s just how I roll.
Tomorrow I’m getting on a flight to go visit my bro in SoCal. I got invited to a training camp down there that has some awesome riding lined up this week. You’ll find me throwing down on Palomar in a few days. Then, a few days later the top riders in the world will be throwing down on the same mountain. Bro and I have purchased a couple buckets of paint to wax on/off a giant penis and LANCE EPO messages on the road. As the racers near, we’ll drop trou’ below bums and run in front of the camera for awhile. Look for us on TV or the internet coverage. My last foray to a ProTour race had me standing behind Lance on the tele during an interview in Georgia. We also got to a race the night before in our RV and chose a good parking lot to sleep. We rolled out of bed the next morning and stumbled out the door to find we were in the middle of the staging area for all the teams and their RVs. I’m no star chaser, but it is nice to be able to chat with cyclists you see riding in Europe, like Bobby Julich. That was back when Floyd was still in testosterone diapers and Lance was eating crow.
Leave a Comment