First off, congratulations to Bart and Rosie on their 2nd child -- a 7 lb baby girl born at 12 am this morning. Life is beautiful, especially when they are that small. As I always like to say, I've hooked into trout bigger than that.
Second off, positive vibes and better karma to the likes of the Clintster and Mateoman -- both of whom broke bones in the Triple Valley Stage Race, which shall forever be remembered as "that one race where there was a big crash, a bike 10 feet in the air, and a Life Flight helicopter." I hope y'all get better soon.
Third off, the Triple Valley Stace Race (the "TVS") was fun and a good way to bring in the racing season. I'm still trying the make the transition from snow to road, so I raced "naked" and without expectation, meaning, no HR monitor, no powertap, and no looking at results. I went with the objective of just racing, listening to my body/legs (and the Force), and determining what I need to do in order to develop better form. All in all, it went ok. I was pleasantly surpised to learn later on that I finished "in the money." Some notes:
A) I need to develop a more efficient pedaling stroke. Watching Chase on his junior gears spin at 100+ rpm for extended periods of times was inspiring, especially when he passed me during the TT. Hopefully, as I spend more time on the bike, this will come.
B) Push through the discomfort/pain. When Chase passed me during the TT, I sat up for a minute, thinking, that's it, I'm done. Since it was my first ride on the TT bike, it was incredibly uncomfortable, and I didn't feel like I was going very fast. I was, as Ligget says, "pedaling squares." After a stern conversation with myself, I was able to pull it together and finished the TT. Oh yeah, I'm going to be spending more time on the TT bike. I need to get better at that.
C) Gotta race. I went to the circuit race with the objective of seeing where the edge was. I spent a fair amount of time on or off the front. It was somewhat gratifying on the 5th or 6th lap to see the group break apart, leaving only 10 riders left (I think I was the 10th rider, barely, and nearly fell off the edge). And I was happy to see teammate Jon advance into 3rd on GC. I have to admit, I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't a little more action during the race. Gary mentioned that he was thinking of pulling us because we were coasting through the finish area. Congrats to Boudie for hanging on the "hill" and taking the sprint (I can't believe we let you set pace up the hill on the final lap). Nice job to all.
4 comments:
Congrats to Bartman. I don't know how you guys do it.
I was surprised as anyone that I paced up the hill the last lap. Was the "tempo" that hard or were you guys lazy??? I thought for sure there would be fireworks on that hill the final time up it.
What goes uphill slow goes downhill fast so I was happy for a slight downhill sprint.
Why did you have to remind me about the TT. I blocked that out of my mind. It's something I'd rather forget. :)
Hope everyone who went down heals up fast. That sucks. Good job on finishing in the money.
I heard Jon was lighting it up that 5th lap up the hill. I was barely hanging by a thread. I thought I was the last guy over the hill.
Hope you liked my relay push. Now back to reality of being a working stiff.
I think it was a combination of being scared and hoping that you'd be too tired for the sprint. Anyone who would have gone out and drilled it on the final climb probably would have been out of the sprint. And I was concerned that there might be an attack on the flat before the downhill, so I wanted to make sure I would either be the attacker or could cover it. Turns out that we got passed by the 1/2 group at the top, which made attacking difficult.
I guess that was a fortunate time (for me) to get passed by the 1/2s.
How is Mateoman doing?
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