April 13, 2008:
Somewhere between the hard racing, the hard training, the blizzard that
follows me around, and the crazy amount of traveling, it appears that I
caught a little illness. How can tell that I'm getting sick?
-Sore throat
-Stuffiness
-Achiness
-Etc.
-Every other day, I do sit ups until I'm sore, and I'm still sore from like
5 days ago.
-I got 7th in a local time trial yesterday. That actually wasn't bad
considering the field (I only lost 45 seconds to Chris Baldwin in a 30k, and
beat Phil Zajicek, although who knows how hard those guys were going).
Still, I averaged a good 35 watts less than I expected from recent time
trials, and felt like shit.
So I skipped the "dipshit crit" (Colby's term) today in favor of sitting on
my ass. It wasn't a complete waste, though: I finished one of my distance
classes, and I'm almost done with the second. Hopefully we'll get this
knocked out fast, I can take care of my last distance assignments, and
training for Gila will resume shortly.
I'm in Boulder for another couple of weeks. While I'm here, the rest of the
parts should come for my road bike, and I'll get a fit done at the Boulder
Sports Institute. I also have an appointment to get some insoles made (my
feet hurt). That's about all that's going on in the wide world of Phil.
Pictures posted from Redlands and California, as
well as another article for Bicycling.com.
April 3-6, 2008:
As soon as I saw the startlist at Redlands, I
knew it would be rough. Still, I thought I had a chance to pop a result
somewhere. My first chance was the prologue, a difficult 5k course, mostly
uphill, but enough downhill and false flat to want a TT bike. In the last
kilometer, it kicked up hard, so I made sure to save some gas for it. I
ended up pacing perfectly, averaging one of my best 10 minute efforts ever,
and placing 61st. It was going to be a long weekend.
The next stage was an 84 mile road race. The course had a long climb with a
technical leadup that made positioning difficult, and crosswinds when you
weren't climbing. On the last lap, I got caught on the wrong end of a split
in the field. I wasn't sure where it formed, but suddenly we were heading
through the narrow roads up to the climb, and I couldn't see the front of
the field. Looking around, my group seemed to be cool with it, so I put my
head down and tried to close the gap myself. By the top of the climb, I
found myself in a group with all the sprinters that got dropped, but we were
close to the leaders. Everyone pulled through a few times in the crosswind,
and we dragged ourselves back on.
The next stage was a 90-minute crit, full of 45-degree turns, narrow roads,
and sketchiness. I started at the back, and had a lot of fun fucking people
over, clipping my pedals, chopping turns, and moving up. I finally got to a
decent position with 20 minutes to go and hung out there to the finish. I
was happy with it, because a lot of guys lost time. After the crit, I was
sitting 42nd in the overall.
The last stage was just silly. It started with 2 laps of the crit course,
with points sprints on each, so we railed it from the gun. After that, we
headed out of town, with mountains looming in the distance. With a 5 mile
climb coming up, everyone fought for position, and crashes were rampant. I
rode at the front, in the wind, mostly out of fear. It worked out, though,
because it was downhill and I didn't get caught in the huge crashes that
took out my whole team and a solid fourth of the race.
Once we hit the circuit, I started to feel pretty good. The course wasn't
hard, positioning didn't matter that much because the climbs were short,
Rock was setting a decent tempo to keep everything close, and the huge
number of turns meant lots of coasting. We were to do 12 laps of this 10k
circuit, with a KOM on each, and then descend back to the crit course for
three more laps to the finish. With three laps to go, I still felt good, and
it looked like the field was started to get tired. I moved the front on the
KOM in case of any splits, and slotted in pretty much the best position in
the race: right behind Chris Baldwin and the Rock Racing train.
Then, disaster struck: with two laps to go, the top bolt of my bottle cage
shook out from all the bumpy roads, and the whole cage swung down into my
pedal rotation. I tossed the bottle aside and tried unsuccessfully to rip
the cage out. Suddenly, I found myself off the back. One of the Mavic guys
removed the bottom bolt with a wrench, and then got back on the back on the
motorcycle, when he was supposed to give me a push to get me rolling again
on the steep climb. To top it off, the driver then shot away from me, rather
than help me catch back on the downhill. It's nice to have this service
available at big races, but this is the second time they've fucked me over,
and I've only gotten a wheel from them once. Where do they get these guys?
I came through the feed zone a minute down, but there's always a chance that
they'll slow down for some reason, so I chased hard and tried to catch them.
Instead of slowing down, they attacked each other, and the field shattered.
Dropped riders shot backwards like shrapnel and quit the race, but I finally
bridged the gap to the 2nd main group on the road. We traded pulls and
finish 4 minutes down. My final place was 36th: pretty damn good for that
field and given what happened, but my legs had a top-25 in them, so it was
pretty frustrating. Still, more big races to come, with more chances to pull
something off.
I'm headed to Boulder this week to train until the Tour of the Gila next
month.
March 28-30, 2008:
I was disappointed that registration was full
at San Dimas, as I'm pretty sure I would have done well in the uphill TT. I
still wanted to get in a good, hard weekend, though, with Redlands starting
on Thursday, so I headed to Tucson, Arizona for a local stage race. The
first stage was a 5k ITT. It was a twisty, technical, and rolling course,
with a steep kick in the last kilometer. They weren't letting anyone
pre-ride the course, so the advantage was to people who had done the race in
previous years. I had a decent ride anyway, and ended up third, 8 seconds
back from the win.
Stage 2 was an 80 mile road race with some decent hills and lots of wind.
Having no team, I had to rely on the teams ahead of me in the GC to do all
of the work. Once again, that strategy failed, as the 8-man team sitting
second overall let a break go, which contained three riders on the Mexican
Specialized Team. They quickly got a sizeable gap, and the teams that should
have been chasing all sat up. I jumped to try to go across, and that's when
the chase decided to get motivated. I got within 15 seconds of the break,
but the field caught me and sat up, as more failed bridge attempts allowed
the gap to inflate again. For the 2nd half of the race, I worked with Ryan
Baumann, and the two of us held the gap steady and started to get a little
time back when two riders dropped from the break. As we neared the finish, I
saw them ahead, and went to the front to chase for the last 10 minutes or
so. When we crossed the line, the two riders only had a 13 second margin to
the field, bringing me down to 4th place overall, 21 seconds back.
The last stage was 9 laps of a 5.5 mile circuit, with similar conditions to
the previous day. This time, the race was a little more organized, as the
Specialized team rode an impressive tempo all day, protecting their leader
and chasing down all of the breaks. I slipped away at the end of the 2nd
lap, looking for the intermediate time bonus, but they dragged me back with
200 meters to go. I decided to refrain from any more breakaway attempts, as
the leader's team was too strong and too organized to let me go. My only
remaining hope was the time bonus at the finish, which could have launched
me to the win with a little luck. Going in to the last few kilometer,
the Pro, 1 field caught the cat 2s. I had good position, and tried to take
advantage of the confusion, attacking through the cat 2 field into the
headwind with 500 meters to go. I was hoping to grab the back of a cat 2
leadout or something, but they were pretty torn up from the wind and hills,
and a few guys from my field responded and shot up the outside of the cat
2s, putting me down to 7th or so on the stage, but holding my GC position.
The race made the front page at velonews.com, and I got some good mentions
for FiordiFrutta. Here are the links:
http://www.velonews.com/article/73893/saloman-cox-lead-tucson-bicycle-classic
http://www.velonews.com/article/73865/tucson-bicycle-classic-gets-under-way
Official song that was in my head all weekend: It Won't Be Long, by the
Hives.
Official restaurant: Sweet Tomatos salad buffet, where we ate after every
race.
I also got a chance to spend some time traveling and hanging with some of
the guys on my Redlands composite team, so we had some valuable bonding
time, and I had several people to pull my finger for some nasty salad farts.
March 24, 2008:
The last couple of days were by far the two
hardest local races I've ever done. Saturday was a parking lot crit in Del
Mar. Usually for a race with $1888 in prize money over 18 places, my biggest
concern is that the locals will recognize my team and mark me out of
contention. On my way to the race, that worry was put to rest, as I caught
up to Francois Parisien (Symmetrics, ex-Slipstream) and Dominique Rollin
(Toyota-United, just won a stage at the Tour of California). That would have
been bad enough, but a sizeable Toyota team showed up to support Rollin,
with Hilton Clarke and several other strong riders. Healthnet was
represented with Rory Sutherland, and Jelly Belly and Time Development both
brought strong teams. My expectations quickly went from sneaking away for
the win to hoping I could make the break.
I worked hard to save energy and hit the right moves, but nothing stuck and
it seemed destined for a field sprint. Finally, with 8 laps to go, a Time
rider got away with one of the Toyota-United guys, and they got 10 seconds
or so. I jumped from move to move trying to get across, and countered one of
them to make the attempt solo. With 5 to go, I was 10 seconds from the
break, and 10 more from the field, when Caleb Manion (Toyota) came across.
Since he had a teammate up the road, I told him I wouldn't sprint him if he
would work with me. He sat on anyway, so I kept drilling it, working hard to
give away 3rd place. With 3 to go, Manion jumped me (apparently he wasn't
optimistic in his ability to sprint me after sitting on for 5 laps?), but I
fought back to his wheel and countered him (general principle). He came back
within half a lap, and I continued to drag him around. WIth 700 meters to
go, Rory Sutherland apparently went apeshit in the field and started his
sprint, bringing us back just before the final stretch.
Sunday wasn't much different. It was an office park crit with even less
money ($900 over ten places), but a full Rock Racing squad appeared with all
their best crit riders in addition to all the Time guys from Saturday.
Hilton Clarke from Toyota made another appearance, and Karl Menzies took
Rory's place for Healthnet. My strategy was the usual: be in all the breaks
that might stick, and hope for the best. It didn't work out (it never does
in big crits) and this time I got sucked back with three laps to go, setting
up the field for a 130-man sprint that I got to watch from the back. I did
sneak away for an early prime, though, countering a break and attacking
through the last turn. It turned out to be tires, but 115 guys came home
empty-handed, and I wasn't one of them, so I'm satisfied. I have to keep in
mind that I'm a climber doing flat crits against crit specialists, so I
should be happy to factor in the race at all. It'll be my turn later in the
season.
March 17, 2008:
I'm finally back in San Diego after racing the Sequoia
Cycling Classic over the weekend. I got 16th in the TT, because they got my
time wrong by 1:10. I'm sick of talking about it, but the short version is
that I should have been 11th and it doesn't really matter. My
composite team got in to Redlands, so I have a real race to do while I'm out
here. Until then, I'll be sticking to local races to make some money.
Look for a blog on Bicycling.com to cover the last couple of weeks. Pictures will go up when I get caught up with my distance classes.
March 6, 2008:
I'm now back in Athens for another 24 hours.
Last night, I rode with the Larsons and did the UGA practice race (Dan beat
me in the sprint, so there won't be a race report). This morning, I took a
took a proctored exam for my correspondence anthropology class. I arranged
to take it at the Athens public library a couple weeks ago. UF mails the
materials and instructions up here, and a certified librarian watches me
take the exam. It took 15 pages, which wouldn't have been bad if it wasn't
the first time I'd written anything by hand since December. I made it
through, and think I did well (whatever that's worth). Tonight I'll head
back to Atlanta for one night, and then on the road again, hopefully to make
it to California by Monday. Call me.
February 29-March 2, 2008:
Here's a short summary of the FiordiFrutta team
training camp. I drive 16 hours from Athens with my new teammate Steve
Weller on Wednesday and Thursday. We arrived in Hadley, Massachusetts in
time for some chili dinner, which Matt White made to sabotage my performance
for the weekend and completely mess up my guts for a couple days. The true
victim of this plot was Toby Marzot, who was next to me during the
computrainer testing on day 1. I set the record for power/weight in the
computrainer step test, in which your load is raised 25 watts every 3
minutes until failure. I almost finished the 425 watt step, but the
production from my bowel region was much higher, and poor Toby took it like
a man. Two of my teammates, Will Riffelmacher, and Josh Lipka, beat the step
test, completing the highest step it gets to (450 watts). Damn.
After the first step test, we were prescribed a 2:!5 endurance-tempo ride,
which put me in 260 watt hell. After that...another step test. It was a
nasty sufferfest, but I guess that's how you train when it's below zero
outside. Speaking of which, New England got 5 inches of snow that night,
cancelling our plans for an outdoor ride on day 2.
Instead of the planned 4 hours outside, we put in another 3 hours on the
trainer. There were a few drills, but it was mostly disorganized pedaling,
hating life, and wishing I was back in Florida. It was pretty fun driving in
the ice and snow. My teammates were all amused at how novel and amusing it
was to me.
Day 3 was a computrainer 10k TT. It's a standard course with some simulated
hills, in which weight is supposedly a factor. However, the tester
admitted that it doesn't factor frontal area, etc., so it's more of a
wattage contest. I got third on the team, setting another power/weight
record (5.7something: 386 watts for over 14 minutes), so at least the legs
are good. After that the weather had warmed, and we rode outside for three
hours in the snow. Believe it or not, with enough clothes, it wasn't that
bad. The worst part was eating salt spray shot up from my teammates' wheels.
I stayed in Mass for another day at the request of Steve, who wanted more
time to hang with his friends and girlfriend. I explored the area, went for
a ride, and got some studying done (oh yeah...school). It was a rough camp,
but the team is awesome, I loved the area (I'll be moving there this
summer), and I'm pretty excited about the rest of the season. I also
discovered an excellent cookie. See my cookie rankings
page for details. Pictures are also updated.
February 23, 2008:
Today was the first in the Greenville Training
Series. I rode up with Dan and Rebecca Larson, and one of her teammates. We
were amazed that the "training race" was Pro, 1, 2 (rather than A, B, and C)
and had 80 starters in the field, including a good number of pros and , more
than the local races I've been doing this season. Another difference between
this race and Florida races is that there are 20 teams rather than 3, which
made racing teamless much easier.
The course was 8 laps of seven miles in rolling and very windy terrain. On
the first lap, I fought through the massive field as attacks rolled off the
front and got sucked back. I finally squeezed through all of the bodies at
the base of one of the longer hills, and drove it hard to stretch the field
out. With the heavy winds and the yellow line rule that made it difficult
for stronger riders to get to the front, I got a gap with two other riders,
and another pair coming across less than a mile later. Two of my companions
were on the DLP-Texas Instruments pro team, and the other two were strong
locals.
We got a quick gap that hovered around 1:15, as the five of us worked
smoothly. One of the locals soon began to sit on, promising not to sprint,
and was followed by one of the pros. That left three of us working for laps
3-6, and the gap went down to a minute with 2 laps to go. My legs were still
pretty fresh, and I was getting pissed off at the passengers and the
diminishing gap, so with 11 miles to go, I put in a hard solo attack up a
hill. With the heavy crosswind, my breakaway companions couldn't get my
wheel when I attacked, and began to rotate behind me. My legs were good, and
I rode a nice, steady pace all the way to the win, putting a minute and a
half on the break by the finish. 'Bout damn time.
I'm now ranked 3rd in the USCF category 1 national ranking for the road
race, which is pretty cool. More importantly, when you google "Phil Gaimon,"
www.philthethrill.net is now the
first result!
February 17, 2008:
The crit today was 80 minutes plus 5 laps of a
technical course in downtown Dade City, Florida. It had 6 turns, cobbles,
some elevation change, and plenty of wind. The meant two things: 1. moving
up in the field would be difficult, and 2. a break would stick.
In the first five laps, two riders from the Santo amateur team got away.
With three AEG pro riders in the field, including Frank Travieso, the
peloton wasn't too worried. Still, I saw the gap stretching and made a
number of bridge attempts. Each time, an AEG rider would go with me or come
up, but wouldn't work, so I never really got closer than 10. The break got
farther and farther away, and I continued to blow my wad trying to get
across. It failed, and all I had to show for it was a $50.
I chilled out and recovered for a few minutes, and then gradually made my
way back up to the front for an opportunistic attack, just as the two riders
lapped the field. From then on, the pace was set by their 10-or-so man
amateur team, with help from AEG. As it turns out, the AEG pro team lost one
of its title sponsors in the last month, and got two new ones: Santo and
Herbalife, both of which also have amateur teams in Florida. Apparently,
since they share a title sponsor, Santo and AEG raced together (I don't
think Herbalife was part of it), and I didn't know (oops). It kinda sucks
that arguably the two strongest teams combined, seeing as the Santo dudes
clean up when there are no pros around, and Travieso could probably have won
the race just pedaling with his penis. Either way, those two Santo guys rode
their asses off and lapped us, so they deserve it anyway.
It gave me a great idea for a scam, though. Maybe we should all get one
sponsor, the whole field can be on the same team, and we'll split prize
money even. Then we can just ride around with our mouths open and breathing
heavy like we're racing, maybe stage a few crashes for the crowd, etc. Who's
in?
February 16, 2008:
The San Antonio road race course is probably
the hardest course I've done in Florida. It has actual hills, requiring small chainrings and pacing. The start was at 12:30, so hydration would be key in
the 87 mile race. I tried a few early attacks again, but decided that
sitting in the back and keeping an eye on things was a better tactic. Sure
enough, 4 riders went up the road near the end of the first (of five) laps.
One of the longer hills led up to the start/finish, and several attacks and
counters strung out the field. I saw my chance and jumped, making it across
to the break about 3 minutes later.
The break was glad to see me, and our gap stretched a little. However, the
field still had us in sight when I flatted my rear wheel, and had to wait
for them all to pass before the wheel truck arrived. I got my wheel and got
back onto the field, only to learn that the break had reshuffled, and now
contained all the players, including Frank Travieso, David Guttenplan, and
Rudy Robaina. That pissed me off, so I got 4 strong riders to work with me
to keep them close, stopping once in awhile to yell and cuss as the retards
who were intentionally clogging the rotation and sitting up (who does
that?). This effort lasted about 15 minutes, but the break still had about
45 seconds going into the 5-minute climb. I went apeshit on the climb and
got them back to 5 or 10 seconds over the top. I rocketed to the back of the
now-split field from the effort, but it came back together near the bottom.
I took the next lap and a half pretty easy, drinking as much as I could and
cramping some anyway. At the beginning of the 4th lap, I went to the front
on a steep hill, and drilled it with Winston David (AEG) and one other
rider. We took hard pulls and didn't let up, so once we had crested the hill
and entered a crosswind, the band snapped, and we found ourselves working
with a solid gap. We kept the rotation smooth and took even pulls, and our
gap was up to a minute and a half going into the last lap.
Soon, we heard some bad news: there was a group of 7 45 seconds behind us. I
was cramping hard by now, but Winston convinced me to "just put our heads
down and try to stick it." The group behind us was too strong, and we were
caught with about 5 miles to go. They made contact on a hill, and I had a go
at an attack to see if they hesitated, but I came right back. After that,
they let me sit on the back, and briefly forgot about me as they attacked
each other on the rollers, as I closed some gaps and saved energy. With a
mile to go, my cramps had abated, and I started attacking again. They saw me
coming, and I never got much of a gap, doing the "attack, get caught, pull
off, attack again" method that works when I don't feel like shit. My efforts
did split the group, and the sprint itself brought everyone in a couple
seconds apart, with me in 5th. At least I went for the win this time.
February 10, 2008:
The 70 minute crit in downtown Gainesville had
4 corners and one short, steep hill. I was pessimistic about my legs today,
given that I had been up and running around since 5 in the morning working
with registration and trying to make the race happen. Everything worked out,
and the Pro 1,2 race was last to go in the afternoon. I made a few attempts
to go early in small breaks, but gave that up and opted to sit in the back
and let the race play out without me. After a 15 minute rest, 7 riders went
up the road, and I bridged to them on the hill a lap later. We worked well
together until the riders with bigger teams began to sit on. Lacking a team,
and not feeling like an attack would get anywhere, I continued to work to
maintain our gap. With 1 lap to go, we had a 40 second gap, and no one would
get off of my wheel. I rode tempo and began the sprint out of the last turn.
It worked out better than I expected, as only three guys were able to come
around me, and fourth place against all those sprinters wasn't bad.
Afterward, I was a little disappointed that I was so conservative. 4th place
is good, but it won't go on the resume.
February 9, 2008:
Today was the first of two races promoted by
myself and the University of Florida Cycling Team. After getting staying up
late and getting up early to help out with the organization, I managed a
reasonable warmup and got my ready for the morning individual time trial. It
was a rolling course for Florida, but I probably only shifted gears 9 or 10
times. I averaged 28.9 mph and 369 watts for 18 minutes, winning the race by
a six-second margin, pretty given the fairly strong field and the number of
organizational distractions I've been dealing with.
This afternoon was a team time trial. I assembled a group of all the
strongest unattached riders, featuring Dan Larson, David Gutt, and Gary
Yeats, and we christened ourselves the "Fart Bullets." We rode smooth and
fast, and the Fart Bullets emerged victorious by a 17 second margin.
February 2, 2008:
Going by the theory that I'm a bike racer and
should therefore race my bike a lot, I arranged to race twice today. The
first was a 20k individual TT in St. Cloud, Florida. The start was at 9:16
AM, and my GPS said it would take me 3 hours, 15 minutes to get from the
time trial to the afternoon race at 2 PM: the third and final race of the
training crit series.
When I told Colby (my coach) that I wanted to do both races, he said "Sure, no problem. Just make sure you're dialed in with food in your car so you don't bonk or miss your start in the second race," so on Friday afternoon, I put five bagels and a Chick-fil-a Cool Wrap in a plastic bag, and placed the bag in a cooler full of ice.
I raced the time trial, felt pretty crappy (I've been training a lot lately...resting not so much), but caught a couple dudes, and had enough in the tank to win the race by 30 seconds. Due to aforementioned time constraints, I basically time trialed directly into my car and got back on the road. My cooldown consisted of shaking the cramps out of my legs for the entire drive. After slamming a recovery drink, I reached into the cooler for my chilled, delicious Chicken Caesar Cool Wrap (with fat free honey mustard dressing). I removed the bag to find that it had leaked, leaving me a gloppy sack of parmesan cheese, lettuce, grilled chicken strips, and soggy bagels. A tear formed in my eye and I choked down the icy, wet lunch.
Also due to the time constraints, I sped like a demon the whole way, beating the TomTom projection by a solid HOUR. Apparently the default speed is set on "wuss" or "old person in the right lane." I made it to the crit well ahead of schedule, got my bike ready and was able to spin most of the crap out of my legs before the start.
My plan for the crit was to sit in and try to fly under the radar for the first half or so, since breaks weren't going to stick anyway, and I didn't have the energy to rip everyone's legs off. When I attacked last week, I had a short leash. This week, I couldn't even get a gap. When I swung off, the field swung with me, like some deranged synchronized dance. When a break went up the road, the only help I got was from Jim Wright, national masters tandem TT champ (who had also done the ITT earlier).
With 10 laps to go, a dangerous break was just up the road. Not permitted to bridge, I went to the front to bring it back. I tried to counter it when I finally got up to the group, but the snap wasn't there, and another dangerous duo got away with 4 to go, including Bobby Sweeting (AEG). With no one else willing or able to work, and no hope of bridging, I found myself in the same boat as before. With the logic that no break should be allowed to stick if I'm not in it, I drove the front for the last three laps, and Bobby and his companion were caught in the last turn. Props to Bobby for still holding on to 2nd place, and to David Guttenplan for blowing everyone away in the sprint.
January 26, 2008:
The second training race had a slightly
stronger field, including two sprinters from Miami who dominate the Florida
crit scene (for anyone who doesn't know, crits down here are hard, fast, and
nasty). The field was more motivated this week, and relentless attacking for
the first half of the race was fruitless. Finally some hard efforts through
a crosswind forced a split in the field with the ten strongest riders
emerging with a decent gap. Some were sitting on, so I had to start
attacking the small group. Just as the field came back to the split, my 14th
attack of the day (according to the power file) succeeded, and I came
through the finish line with three other riders, five seconds clear of the
field with three laps to go. The sprinter refused to work, so the
pacesetting was left up to me and two other riders. I attacked going into
the last turn, and all eyes were on the sprinter when I came out with a
20-length gap. I put my head down the went as hard as I could to the line,
but once again, it was not to be: for the second week in a row, I placed 2nd
by half a wheel. If someone builds a mountain on the backstretch, I'll have
that shit next week.
January 19, 2008:
Today was the first of three training races
held in a corporate park about 20 minutes from my house in Gainesville, and
had about 35 riders. As is tradition for the first race the year, I attacked
at the gun. Breaks went back and forth, but the field was sluggish, and it
only took 8 or 9 laps (out of 25) for the main break to be established.
Winston David (AEG), Chuck Jerabek (Jacksonville Road Club), and I worked
smoothly, quickly establishing a sizeable gap over the field and a small
chase group. Jerabek agreed not to contest the finish, but I was not
optimistic about my chances of beating Winston if it came down to a sprint.
I put in one hard attack, but came back like a yoyo, and just pulled through
until the last lap when Winston jumped me. Coming out of the last turn, I
was on his wheel, right where I wanted to be. Unfortunately, my sprint
wasn't up to par, and on his wheel is where I stayed, 2nd place.
Dec 16, 2007:
The Sarasota Cyclocross course was open and windy, mostly through
grass with a couple hard, steep hills. Glad to finally do a cross race on a
cross bike, I moved through the field and found myself with only two other
riders after the first lap. In lap 2, I took a hard pull, looked back, and
was surprised to learn that I had dropped my companions. For the rest of the
race, I rode a hard, comfortable pace and held the gap to the 2nd place
rider between 30 seconds and a minute, lapping almost everyone else on the
1.5 mile course. This puts me 2nd overall in the Florida Cyclocross series,
a ranking likely to fall since I will miss the next few races.
Dec 9, 2007:
MTB State Championships. For my first mountain bike race, I chose a
course that was much too technical for one so accustomed to skinny tires and
going 30 mph. I spent the race granny-gearing up rocky little hills, and
then tripodding back down, with no opportunity to go hard or feel like I was
actually training. My heart rate barely broke 120, and I dropped out after a
lap to head home and hit the gym. This will probably conclude my MTB career.
Next race: Sarasota Cyclocross Dec. 15.
Dec 8, 2007:
Orlando Cyclocross. After a poor start, I worked through the field
and bridged up to the two leaders, just in time to blow a tire. I ran to the
parking lot, grabbed the nearest wheel, and ended up in 3rd with no rear
disc brake. My new cross bike comes Monday. Not a moment too soon. Next
race: MTB state championships Dec. 9 in Ocala.
Dec 1, 2007:
Tallahassee Cyclocross. My first cross race ever was defined by
piss-poor tactics and technique, and lack of a cross bike. Managed 6th place
thanks to a long road climb. Next race: Cross Dec. 8 in Orlando.
Nov 30, 2007:
I have officially signed to FiordiFrutta for
2008.