Race 2 Replace

So, I came across this website about a month ago…it’s got some funny and some whacked out commercials as well as a couple short documentaries (aka webisodes). My favorite has to be the one entitled “Team Girona” following the americans in Gerona where they make Tom D. look like an annoying little kid and you can tell it’s taking great restraint for Hincapie to not hit him to shut him up…

Interesting Body Points

Ran across this article and it has some interesting points to make about how our body works…

Race winnings

I won $10 tonight! Basically earned back my entry fee…but what’s a boy to do when he gets some hard earned cash? Spend it! And boy did I treat myself right…a little pizza…well large actually topped off with a big glass of water. Mmm…

And thanks to our efforts at work, the higher-ups “forced” us to take Friday off and come back recharged on Tuesday. I’m totally doing nothing all day. w00t!

PIR

Double post Wednesday!

Yesterday, to punish myself for missing the winning break on Sunday, I went down to the Pacific Internation Raceway for the weekly Tuesday night race series. It's a nice way to get a race in mid-week while not having to ride many miles to get to the finish line. They're typicall about 1H in length and held on a car racing track with each week being a slightly different course.

I was off the front about 90% of the time, took both the primes, and helped setup my teammate to take the win. I managed a 2nd place for my efforts barely beating out the fast chargers from behind.

Late post

Yes yes…I know, it's be like a total week since my last post…but things have finally settled down and I now have the energy to write this!

This past weekend was yet another stage race. Funny, I went from having only done one stage race in my illustrious cycling career to now having done 4 in the past month or so.

So yeah, typical SR stuff, opening TT, night-time crit, then a hum-dinger of a RR the following day. Opening TT went really well actually. It was a 6 mile loop where I placed 5th overall! The two local fast guys who I expected to beat me and two Symmetrics cycling (Canadian pro team) placed higher than me. And I wasn't too far off the two Symmetrics guys in 3rd and 4th!

I sat in during the Crit. Tough 8 corner figure-8 crit that was pretty tough. I got called up to the line for my 5th place and pulled a not-so-pro move by rolling my bike right in front of the field. The official walked by and said I should move up 10 or so feet so that I could get my recognitioin and that the rest of the field could roll up around us. Stupid move…I knew that…I'm so not pro! Only thing of not was that 6th place in the TT got 3rd in the crit and the 5 second time bonus that goes with it. I got bumped down to 6th…boohoo.

The RR reminded me of the old NY stage RR course. Fairly uneventful loop with a big climb right in the middle. We did like 5.5 laps with 6 climbs up the hill. I saw the winning break go but didn't go around the guy ahead of me to close the gap. Pitty. There goes my 6th place! I finish off the weekend loosing a few spots to come in 9th on the GC. Pretty soon I might have enough points to move up to the Cat 1 status!! Now that's so-pro.

State Omnium

No matter how many times I type it, the word Omnium is going to trip me up.

This past weekend was the State Omnium which is basically a glorified name for a stage race that goes based on points rather than time…meaning anytime you finished top 10 in any one stage, you are blessed with points.

In the opening stage TT, I was cautious about my performance and left a lot in the tank. As it turns out, it cost me about 2 spots as the two guys who finished faster than me were only faster by a matter of seconds. Phooey
Starting off on the TT, this was only about .5 miles into the 9 mile TT…notice the calm, painfree expression on my face

As things began to heat up, so did the pain

Saturday night was the crit in downtown Wenatchee, WA. Our race didn't start until 8:10pm so we had the thrill of racing under those crazy bright lights that are usually used for night-time road work. Word to the wise, avoid looking into them at all costs for fear of being blinded during the next lap. The crit was good and a few of us actually said it was "easy". I managed to roll off the front with about 10 minutes to go, picked up a couple primes for some cash/merchandise and then hung on for a top 10 in the finishing sprint.

Post-race shot with me and murdin

The final day was BRUTAL. It is basically one big climb. Ridiculous.

Note that the climb is like 4.5 miles long and it took us well over 30' to climb it. I made the front group but about 1/2 up the first time it split into the lead three and the chasing 4. We eventually caught up to the lead three on the flats between the climbs and so the 7 of us rolled through at tempo to the bottom of the climb. Then things got really interesting. One rider took off and got huge time gains by the top and easily held on for the win. Some riders dropped off, while I was still in contention for a top placing. On the descent, the eventual 2nd place rider got away which left the me and the two remaining riders to ride it out to the finish. In the end, I succumbed to dehydration and ended up not contesting the finish. Still, a solid 5th place result capped off a pretty good weekend. I only managed 9th on the GC due to the racing being based on points. I have some room for improvement but have been making steady progress…

Rolling to the finish in style

Seattle cyclists are meany heads

So earlier in the week, I hopped on my TT bike to get ready for this weekend’s state omnium. As I rushed out of the house, I completely forgot to bring any sort of inflation/repair device as I usually swap my saddlebag from bike to bike.

A quick 1.5H was all that was on schedule so I opted for the perfectly timed south-end [of lake washington] loop which no matter how fast I go, almost always takes me precisely 1.5H.

The south-end is a commonly travelled loop that if you’re committed to biking, you’ve done. So, as my front wheel started to slowly loose air on Rainier Ave (about 10 miles from home) I was not too worried since I could surely bum a tube and some air off a passer-by.

After riding north along Rainier Ave I *finally* ran into a group of 5 guys stopped on the side of the road…apparently one of their buddies was fixing a flat that he got. "Perfect" I thought, they’ve stopped, I wouldn’t have to slow them down waiting for me to fix my flat. I roll to a stop and introduce myself, comment on their flat and jokingly point to mine. "Any of you have a spare tube I could use?" <insert silence here> *cricket* *cricket* "What’s that sound? Oh, it’s the grass growing" WTH!?!? They all said "nope, no tube". Uh, you mean to tell me that of the 5 of you standing here, only one of them had a tube? Strike 1

Continuing to roll home, I eventually got myself onto Lake Washtingon Ave an even MORE heavily populated cycling route. I’m rolling at like 7-10 mph on my nice rear flat. I hail another rider over that appears to have a roving filing cabinet of compartments on his bike and kindly ask him for a tube and some air. His response? "Sorry, I only have a patch kit and I might need it". First off, if you have a patch kit, throw it out and get tubes instead. Secondly, if you have panniers on your bike and all you carry is a patch kit, take them off. Who knew thier were posers amongst commuters? Strike 2

Finally, someone rolls by and asks if I need a hand. After riding about 7 miles on a flat, I jump at his offer. We pull over and he removes a mini-pump from his handlebar-bag and hands it over to me. "Uh, do you have a tube?" I ask…"Oh, I thought you just needed some air, I don’t have any tubes". Someone is hiding in the bushes with a film crew ready to jump out and laugh at me. Strike 3

While I was getting back on my bike, I saw a teammate roll by, but with traffic and this other guy still talking to me, yelling at my friend rolling in the other direction was futile *sigh* Strike 4 (I should have been out a long time ago)

I make it home and I was pissed. 10+ miles on a flat with no help from anyone. Heck, my dad got offered a ride home not too long ago when he had a flat…and that was by a complete stranger. I did my good karma back in February when I stopped to help a cyclist in the pouring rain in near pitch-dark conditions…ever since it seems the flat gods are out to get me for my good deeds…hopefully they’re on vacation this weekend.

Multicultural

So, one of the benefits of working at a large company is diversity. However recently, someone brought in some Japanese "snacks". I’m a minor japanophile and couldn’t pass up a chance to partake in the offerings.

I don’t think I got much beyond opening the package:

 

Yes, those are actual dried fish… 

Zero Gravity Pets

 

Broken

Here's a snippet of an email I got regarding to the two crashed riders:

Broken #1: Broke his ankle, fibula (compound) and tibia (compound and exposed). How did it happen? Rider #1 bobbled, rider #2 over reacated and skidded so hard it flatted his tire, then rider #3 way over reacted to the puncture and came across the whole road and took out Broken #1's front wheel causing him to go over sideways hard, unclipped and planted his right foot HARD on the pavement. 

Broken #2: Broke some ribs, punctured a lung and broke his shoulder bone!

Dang…this is in the P/1/2 field with more experience than you can shake a stick at.