Blather on Bicycling

That is what I hear about almost every bike race course described by promoters. I don’t think I heard this mentioned about today’s course at Hila (pronounced with a spanish “H” as in JEE-la). This is how the race unfolded. I saw a mob of people running after Johny. Then Phloyd came by with no one running after him. That wasn’t my race though.

The Cat 2 race started with no fanfare. I threw leg-over-bike and rolled about 200 meters to the start line and then plucked a goat head out of my front tire. I rode back to my motel and got a wheel change. One light climbing wheel gone for the week. Then we raced into the wind and went really slow. During some echelon riding in the wind I spent some time riding in the gutter. At about kilometer 80 of 150 I started noticing some bouncing with my back wheel. A softening tire but it was softening slow enough I never decided to stop for a change. I ended up riding it out at about 5 BAR. Second light climbing wheel gone for the week. Meanwhile, I as parched by the time we entered the 3rd feed zone, which was actually the 1st neutral feedzone even though the Bible didn’t say this. I grabbed 2 bottles and downed one immediately. It’s not a good idea to try to get hydrated at the base of the last climb.

Then, I realized that an 11-21 selection was the stupidist decision of the week. At least I don’t have to worry about that cassette anymore this week. I should have guessed I was in trouble when, at the start line, I was looking around at some huge clusters on the other racers bikes. I figured they were just wimps. At least I was with the main group going into the finishing climb, but I quickly blew off the back and barely made it up the climb thanks to a custom zig-zag technique. It was an awesome climb though.

If you add up all those excuses, and subtract them from my result, you’ll find I won the race. In reality, I don’t think those factors contributed much to how I did. I just wasn’t a good enough climber relative to the Cat 2 race at Gila.

Good thing I brought lots of wheels.

In other news, at Emmett-Roubaix I almost pulled off a double: finishing the top 10 and in last place. Failed again.