Sunday, April 1, 2007

(un)lucky number 2

The number two was the theme of the weekend for me. So many things happened in the number two:

2 crashes
2 flat tires (though one was on the car)
2 races
2 breakaways
2 pts (ECCC pts)

Road race - saturday, 40 miles - 3 laps of 13 miles, 1 big climb and 2 small ones per lap. I wake up on time for a change, get in a good warmup, meet some cool bowdoin kids (one of whom inadvertantly comes up with the best pickup line ever while oogling the c50's "hey, can I spin your wheel?" - I heart collegiate cycling), and head to the start. Things start, I am mid-pack, chillin, talk to mike (carnegie mellon) and dan (drexel). First little climb, and I feel like moving up, so I do....easily. Over the top, I sort of roll off the front. Next thing I know a kid bridges up. I don't really feel like working, and take it easy, and we get caught. I settle in up front, take a pull or two (rather slowly) and on a little rise, some kid goes. I decide to follow him. A third kid bridges. I think, why not? We start going, and don't really build up a lead. We come through to the big decent, and 3 more kids join up with us, although our gap is tiny. We get caught at the base of the biggish climb, and I grind out the climb, and recover pretty quickly. From there some kid attacks, who stays away for the win. I spend the next two laps sitting in the front 10 wheels. Some kids go down behind me shortly after the start of lap three. I make a few more psuedo-attacks and take some pulls. I try to eat my clif block shots, and half of them end up falling (with the other half in my mouth). Last lap on the climb, I am 5th wheel, some kid pushes the pace, and I follow. We pull away, and about 75 ft from the top of the climb, I blow. A second kid comes up a bit ahead of what is left of the group, I jump to get on his wheel, but am not recovered. I come over the top alone, halfway between the kid in front of me and a few guys who now make up the lead group. That group catches me and re-organizes on the descent. I sit 4th wheel hanging on for dear life, using what little legs I have left to try pulling, to no avail. No one has teammates, and no one wants to pull us up to the two guys ahead of us, who are clearly within site. I try pushing the pace one last time on the final little climb, but don't have the legs. I set myself up on dans wheel for the sprint (kid has 3 sprint wins this year so far) and watch him and the rest of the group pull away from me in the sprint. I hold off 1 or 2 of the guys in our group, for 11th, and 2 ECCC points (yay?). Some tufts kid comes up to me after the race and says "nice race man, you were awesome up there attacking and being all agressive, well done".....that made my day and made up for the fact not burning so much early, and I may have held on to that wheel on the last climb. I was stupid and didn't start eating early enough in the race either, lesson learned.

Sunday - crit, 25 laps of ?? miles. Ride to the course, as my car has a flat tire....a premonition of things to come. Line up front row (what a change from the norm) next to mike and near dan. Things start, things are fast. I turn around 5 laps in, see mike and 2 other guys on my wheel, and wonder where the rest of the pack went. (there were like 20 guys in the group). My legs really hurt and felt like rocks from 3 laps in, so it was a long race. Coming up the hill, I would have to stand and grind out 65-70rpm and try not to get droppped....every lap. Lap 10 or so, some kid went down, kid in front of me rode into him and I jammed brake but rode into him. Put a foot down and stayed up, but had to pull my handlebars out of his bike. My chain was off, my brakes were rubbing (someone hit me from behind) and my leg was bleeding --> free lap time. I ride back to the pit, and 15ft from the pit my rear tire explodes.....literally....bang (well the tube). I get a neutral service wheel, and am back in the lead group (along with 1 other kid from the crash). We chase for half a lap and catch back on, but not before my brakes are all messed up and I skid through a corner, promting me to spend awhile trying to open the little levers while riding. Sit in the pack for awhile, finally move from like 3rd to last wheel to maybe 7th wheel, but I am hurting and just fall back where I was. Last lap comes around finally, and I am stoked to hear the bell. 3rd to last turn, and the kid on front of me is on the ground. I hit him, and the kid behind me goes down. I shake myself off, see no one behind me, and decide to ride in behind the group for whatever place. A kid blows a tire in the group, drops back, but still beats me (on a flat) as I am using what little I have left to sprint....for 15th. Considering the circumstances and my being too skinny to be good at crits, i'll take it. I had a great post race talk with alexi (alumni) and the neutral service guys even gave a free tube and changed my tire for me....thats service (at no charge). We rode home, fixed the car, and got back to school....break is over :(

Week in review - 284.24 miles in 17:26.....1 crash during training (wind + sand) but a good time and lots of miles. That puts me at 1442.68 miles for 2007, so far....816 for the month of march. I think I am going to skip uvm....I love that climb, but I have 2 exams I NEED to do well on, so it may be an off weekend for me.....we'll see. Hopefully some good weather will come, and I can do the shop ride up here if I stay (I've never done it, oddly).

4 comments:

zank said...

nice work! We looked for you in Grafton cetner, but couldn't find any Colby riders. I was going to stand in the common, wave my arms, and yell "JOSH, JOSH, OVER HERE!". But my wife said she would divorce me.

Nice training volume so far. You will be a force come cross season!

Colin R said...

apparently i can't follow a road race to save my life. in any case i thought you were in the 3rd group with only 2 or 3 riders up the road at the top of the big hill on the last lap, and I didn't think you were blowing up at all... you were riding 2nd in the group and i yelled something stupid at you i believe.

anyway, i'm a mountain biker so i really had no idea what was going on.

Colin R said...

i was at the top of the big hill, like 50 yards from the high point. if you remember anything about it you'd probably remember my girlfriend ringing a cowbell (are those cool at road races? i have no idea).

oh, and I also screamed your name like a middle school girl in heat, but I can see how you might've blocked that out.

Argentius said...

hey, you'll get there. Sprinting sucks if you aren't a sprinter. Top-10 (or, almost) is a solid result. It isn't a "pack" finish.

The important part is to be aggressive. It feels much better, too, doesn't it?