Don't take all my cokes

So I’m Back from my break.

So I took a mix between a mid season break and a rest week last week. Since I had already taken 10 days off due to the crash I didn’t take a full break. I found out before my vacation that I actually have 5 things wrong with my knee and will need surgery (at some point). I have a tear in my PCL, a bone fragment, a cyst, something called a plica or something, and a bruised bone. Luckily Haymarket Physical therapy has been keeping me up and running. Still haven’t gone back to the Orthopedist to talk about surgery but I’m hoping I can put it off to 2011 or longer.
I went up to New England for a week and tried to go back and visit things I remember as a kid. On the first day we went on a 4 hour ride stopping by my house I lived in growing up only to find out they tore it down. It wasn’t that old it just got too close to falling in the Ocean. So that was a bit of a bummer. Then for dinner we were suppose to go to one of my favorite restaurants, nope it burnt down, I was more upset about the restaurant than the house. The next day we explored the Cape a little, and stopped by an amazing diner in Denis called Grumpy’s. On Wednesday we rode around Martha’s Vineyard on are road bikes in flip flops with platform pedals on and regular shorts, bad call on my part, I rode the last hour standing up. The next couple of days we went to my uncle’s place in New Hampshire and just relaxed. Got some nice 2+ lbs lobsters right from the fisherman’s dock. On Saturday we climbed Mt. Monadnock and started heading back home. Got a camp site at some random camp ground off of the highway, nice place and cheap. BUT it rained and hard for most of the night but luckily I spent the money when I bought the tent and we stayed completely dry, even my shoes that were out in the vestibule. So going to work Sunday night after getting back at 7:30 pm with little sleep the night before was not that easy.
Now I’m back and I’m going to start to get ready for Church Creek. I know there are people saying I’m sandbagging but it’s not like I’m out dominating. I’ve only won 1 race and 1 TT as a 3 and I upgraded as soon as I had my points as a 4 in April. And I will be putting in for my upgrade after church creek. I had no plans on winning the championship crit and it just happened. But after seeing how well I time trialed at the first church creek , which was my first 40k and first TT outside of a stage race, my goal was to get the championship jersey and try to set a good time to get my name out there.
As I plan on racing for a while and will be racing with the big guns later this year and starting next year I know that earning respect is a big part of it. I don’t know what it is about this sport but I think its funny that the same people you try and have a polite conversation with pre race and they blow you off are the first people that want to talk to you after you win. I’m not really complaining about it, I just don’t understand it. My coach has warned me that being new in the peloton that your more likely to make a bad impression than a good one, and you need to keep it professional till you have earned peoples respect as a racer before you can start cracking jokes at the start line ect.. The other thing that I kind of like about being new is that even know I have heard my name a couple of times at races ( I think because of church creek ) people have absolutely no idea who I am at least what I look like. It’s kind of nice not being Lance Lacy who gets called out everywhere. Oh and Lance is not won of those guys mentioned above, I remember talking to Lance at my first race and that is how I hope be as a racer. So there is always a place in my tent for people to stop by no matter if you are a cat 5 or 1 just leave me a fucking chair and don’t drink all my cokes.

A good finish to a weird week…

The week was a bit on the weird side. On Wednesday I did an hour of hill repeats then did the Haymarket “B” ride (“A” ride was canceled for some gay mountain biking thing). I figured I didn’t want to blow up a “B” group ride so I would just follow, well that didn’t work. I was riding 2nd wheel up the first climb when “Super Tri Guy” attacks. No big deal, I jumped over to his wheel. Then the sleeveless fucker looks back like he is Lance Armstrong and attacks. Well that pissed me off, so I shifted up and let out a nice up hill sprint, leaving tri guy with his other group riding buddies. I relaxed after a few minutes and got back in the group. I was leading the group into the sprint point and figured I would just try and hold off any sprints by powering thru. That’s when I look back and see this tiny girl on my wheel. I’m 5’5” and she had to have been a foot shorter and a whole 80 lbs. Yeah she won Mt Washington Hill climb overall. So I just finished out the ride by keeping Lance JR from taking any sprint points. I think he just likes to beat up on the B’s every week, sad.
Rode my Fixie for an hour on Thursday, then on Friday I built my race bike back up and remembered I was having a problem with my shifting. So I decided to ride over to Haymarket Bikes to see if they could fix me up. I was making a joke about how I was going to be SOL if I flatted on my ride since I was riding my race tires. Well I cut the F’ing thing and had to call for a ride. Last time I went out on race wheel before a race I flatted so I guess I’ve learn my lesson.

Hagerstown
I went into Hagerstown with zero expectations, just another race. I have been having bad knee issues ever since the Turkey Hill crash, and some days are really bad. Friday was a bad day but luckily Haymarket Physical therapy was there to fix me up. Originally I was going to do Mt. Nebo but since the promoter still owes me money from Ephrata and won’t return my emails, I’m boycotting his races. So after getting talked into doing Hagerstown by Vic, who says he is going to work for me so I can win it. I thinking ok just another crit with me getting crashed out.
Well the day started out great, watching Sara from cyclelife ride away from the field with an elite woman to take the women’s 3 jersey, oh and although she didn’t do the finish salute that we talked about pre-race she did manage to do the Arsenio Hall fist pump (I got it on video).
Talking pre-race with my teammates and Lance Lacy, I wanted to set Lance up to go with Vic from the gun. Figuring Vic could set up a nice break and I could bridge to it. Well all pre race plans went out the window and found my self bridging to almost every break but feeling good. Nothing was sticking and with 3 to go so I rode up behind Vic and told him I was there. He was supposed to lead me out to the sprint if I didn’t make a break. Vic work his way through the field so well that there was no way in hell I could follow him. I had to keep going on the out side just to get back to him. 2 laps to go and Vic goes to the front and started hammering it, he did his job for as long as he could and had the field strung out. When he was finished a guy took a flyer with Lance pulling me up to him. It must have been around 500m to go when they both died leaving me next in line. I just said now is my shot and hoped Lance would get on my wheel. I never sprinted or even stood up; I just put my nose down and started to crank it up. About 200 to go and I see a lead out or some type of train coming up on my left then they started fading back. That’s when I knew I had a shot so I just kept grinding and held off the sprinters by about half a wheel. It was by far my most gratifying win to date, and not just because it was a championship race. Amazing how one race can change your whole outlook on the season.

Well I’m ready for my break and will be going up to Cape Cod for a week next week for a little R&R. Then when I get back some serious TT work. I want to break into 52 minutes and I know I’m faster than I was at the first church creek and I was told that it was a bad day for times so I have my fingers crossed. Hopefully I can grab 2 jerseys this year… I only thought I was going to get the TT one but I’m not bitching about getting the crit jersey.

Looking Back

So I was having a bit of mid season burn out the past couple of weeks. I’ve been somewhat unhappy with my results, yes I know shut up. How can anyone bitch about going from cat 4 to having there points for cat 2 in 4 months of racing? Well simple, after spending upwards of 28 hours a week on the bike, never missing a day of training, taking a night job, pushing away all my friends, maxing out the credit cards , and giving up any chances of getting a date, I was hoping to be untouchable.
The season started out ok but quickly seemed to not be what I was hoping it would be. I mean you see these guys in the 1/2 fields riding solo for 50 miles, and I can’t even hold off the cat 3’s. I’ve always been the type of person that gives up if I don’t see myself winning. I know it’s a shit way to be but it’s me. Its why I bitched out of the hill climb, I didn’t want to get second.
Well my attitude started changing over the past week or so. I think it was actually after I flatted at TOWC. I just went into the crit angry, its hard to explain but I just didn’t care how I did. I was just going to go hard, I didn’t give two shits if I place or even finished but I was going to make people hurt. Well I don’t know if I made anyone hurt but I rode strong and actually placed higher than I had before in a crit (cat 3) and picked up a prime.
Last weekend I fell somewhere in the middle, I rode my ass off in the RR but still gave up because I didn’t think I was going to win it. Sunday however I just rode my ass off and crashed but had an absolute blast. So I’m thinking that I’m probably just going to go into races with no expectation of placing but expecting to go as hard as I can and finishing ( flats, crashes excluded).
I know no one noticed me when I was just sitting in the field conserving energy and getting slower. But now that I’m riding my dick off (RYDO) it seems that people are starting to take notice, and I seem to be getting faster. I just think I’ve done a whole lot of work not to be winning.
Ah but this is when I take a look at how far I’ve come. Last year I did the Reston race 3/4 and was just hanging on and thought that it was one of the hardest races I had ever done, this year I was one of the aggressive ones in the race and it felt easy. So maybe I should stop my bitching and look at how far I have come and just realize that I still have room to grow. But if I’m not soloing a race in 2 years there will be some good deals on 52cm bikes I can tell you that.
And all my sacrificing hasn’t been in vain, I love my night job, I’ve made new friends, almost paid off the credit cards, hell I even got a date out of it, but I’m still not untouchable..