Joe Martin (JM), took two cars 5 bikes with Spencer, Joe,
Brian, David, & myself. Davis booked us at Quality Inn, a first time for
the hotel-hosting Cyclist for the JM – the entire staff wore JM t-shirts, maids
& innkeepers. Free breakfast, with waffle batter, apples/bananas, tons of
toast/bagel selections, a juice machine, and don't forget we had a coffee machine
that made Starbucks coffee in 40 seconds. The coffee machine could make regular
and dark roast blend or do a half and half of each blend - really good!
Joe Martin requires you to do all three races you can't come
to the race wanting to skip the TT or Crit, must do all three courses to
participate. You did the races in the following order TT-RR-Crit. The TT was my first time doing a TT and
it was hard couldn't shut the voices out of my head, but next year I'll kill
that fricken hill! Before TT, Spencer and I warmed up by riding out Devils Den,
pretty steep switch backs of 8-10 hills pretty fun going down if cars didn’t
come up the hill. Spencer was
happy with my form and expect a lot from me heading into the TT, but I fell
apart, ill be working on my TT seeing that it’s very important and plays a
crucial role in getting good results!
RR, road race - I really wanted to do the road race and was
excited. Spencer got GC for our team and we all agreed to ride for him, made scene
because if he got first that's a lot of money he could share with his us his teammates.
Duh. The field seemed like it
didn’t want to hammer because of the early morning TT suffer fest, our race
started at 3:00 for the Road Race.
People where on the brakes a lot felt like Tour of Herman again… A few attacks people let them go into
the wind not really letting them get to far but letting them hurt themselves in
the wind. Everyone was feeling
each other out, had some Jr’s thinking they where the stuff and maybe next time
a few of us thought about giving them the elbow because they where all over the
place, touching you – to tell you that they where on this side or don’t move…
sick of that shit use your freakin voice!
Cat III we always made sure no one was riding on the double yellow line
rule or passing on the outside – you will get yelled at and reminded about the
rule! I chose to ride in the back
even though I fought to stay in the middle of the pack, just seemed to be a day
when people wanted to sit in for a bunch sprint and we did. David was at the front with Spencer and
Briand and I hung out together in the back. David drifts off the front for a TT
solo no one chases and he is out there for a good 5-8 miles maybe less but it
seemed like forever. Keep the
pressure off Spencer. We sweep up David but everyone in front slows down just
to ride behind him, no attacks.
Last few meters of the race David is off the front again telling Spencer
to get his butt in gear because he drifted to the mid-back and boxed in, by
this time I am behind Spencer and he drifts behind me. David says, “GO ANDREW!” I punch it
trying to see if I can latch onto the left hand side of the train, (picture example: the train was like this on the left handside of the road a lot longer and I make a train on the right),
of the peloton
but it wasn’t worth it, so I ride all the way over to the right not guttering
Spencer, put the hammer down to pull ahead of the other train people panic and
yell on the right, people want to hop on lead out I am creating and I couldn’t
get into the last 2 gears of my bike and spin out at 38mph with a 178bpm and I can get my
heart up to 210 and hold if for 30 seconds could have done more and Spencer
sprints 300meters and gets 3rd. I am happy that Spencer got 3rd but he wishes he would have won. I wish
I could have placed top 10 or 15 for that opener but I sat up and didn’t want
to cause a crash and let everyone pass me. Kyle Skinner gets 4th
Eric P 5th they aren’t on TC/PC but they are friends and they where surprised
and happy about the lead-out for Spencer. Think I made some alliances by doing
the lead-out, showed that I was stronger than the field but ended up working
for a teammate that’s fine in my book can kill it another day to get results
top 3! I really want a win a race
hopefully soon; I can feel it and will be working hard to get it.
Crit on Sunday,
Had a decent
warm up, we had a 45 min race but was cut shot to 40 minutes and later we are
told that the Master had some crashes and they where getting there sorry skins
of the road. The wait another 15
minutes before the officials tell us to go. Sucked standing around 25 minutes also a lot of us wanted to
go to the bathroom again by all the waiting. The races gets on the way get caught be hind people that
cant clip in there pedals and I’m on the inside where you cant turn because the
side walk has a curb that juts into the hole shot, I am in the back… (The
corner more or less is weird to describe becomes more of a hazard in the road! Surprised
no one crashed just a lot of breaking at this corner…) where you don’t want to
be for a crit, do my best not having to touch my brakes because you want as
much speed going into corners because you will usually have to sprint or accelerate
out of corners drawing out the process of you becoming really tired. Crits are like CX races always on your
limit or rather your threshold if your not careful. Get caught behind people that are opening gaps and its
already to hard to pedal behind them to close a gap because you feel like your
on your limit to pop, it happening to be 5 to-go? When did that happen we are
having a 30 minute race!!!!!!! I
get dropped ride hard by myself because I don’t want to get pulled out of the
race, I look back and see a guy from Georgia kit waves be down, we work
together he gets dropped a few times from not holding my wheel but he soon
pulls in front of me, yes I need it only for a few seconds and I take over, he
could ride the hill as much as he thought he could So I always road the hill
and he did most of the easy work for going down the hills and I pulled on the
flats and hill, we catch a guy and he says Thank you and that he owes me one and
pulls us to the other guy and I hammer it up the hill.
We get back to KC, buy beer and have a fire at my place.
FIN
No comments:
Post a Comment