Endorphins

Yesterday I left work early to go pickup my bike. Steve from the Haymarket shop put a Dura Ace bottom bracket and crank on there to replace my FSA gossemer that just didn't want to stay on the bike. So here I was at the bike shop with some upgraded bling on my bike and hours upon hours before sunset. Could there be a better situation?????

I decided to continue the drive on out to skyline. I have only a few weeks remaining befor my Assault on Mt. Mitchell and all I've been doing the last few weeks is short crit preparation. So I figured a long suffering hilly ride would be a great test of my new Dura Ace bling, and a wonderful way to spend hours that should have been spent in a cubicle.

So, With selfish glee I spewed carbon to the applause of some hateful arabs and drove myself all the way out to Front Royal. I stopped in on Jared at the new Front Royal bike shop to utilize their facilities. They have a great back room setup for folks to meet for rides, lounge around and talk cycling, catcall at the local highschool chics strolling by, etc. It's a great place to start a ride and I plan to use it anytime I'm out there. Next time I just need to task jared with cooking some bbq while I'm out. He has nothing to do but stand around and fondle bikes anyway. Might as well have my dinner prepared for me when I return. I was having a self-indulgent day anyway, why not drag others into it?

I've done a specific workout on skyline a few times and had set some goals specific to this ride that I wanted to reach before my Mt. Mitchell race. So I setup my Garmin with the data and was ready to HAMMER!! The workout was to warm up to the park, then ride easy up the hill until there was 7minutes of climbing remaining to the top. Then I'd work really hard until 1minute to the top and attack that remaining minute standing in an all out effort. Once Over the top I'd shift to the big chainring and continue the attack for 2minutes going as hard as I could (pedaling fast even if I was spun out on the 53x11).

My plan was to do that 4 times. I've done this workout twice before. I took that data and compared it to the data from last years Mt. Mitchell race and tried to come up with a plan. That's pretty hard since the race is 100miles and the 30 of the last 40 are somewhat comparable to Skyline. That fellow was hitting those grades at between 12-14mph and in my previous workouts I could only muster 10-12. My goal was to try to get up in the 12-14 range even though I didn't do 60 hilly miles of racing already and wasn't going to do a 10mile vertical wall to a finish. This won't prove that I can come anywhere near the winner in the actual race, but it at least gives me some kind of something to mark my own personal progress.

I started my ride with a smile common to anyone liberated from a cubicle on a sunny spring day. Normally that smile would last until mid-way up the first hill. Yesterday, however was one of "those days". It's been a LONG, long time since I had one of "those days". I compare the time interval between "those days" to my golf ability. I wack away and chase into the woods. I'm just about to realize that golfing totally sucks, then wack.... a pure shot even the pro's would be proud of. Then I spend the next 6 months trying to find that swing again.

You never know when you'll have a day like yesterday. A day where everything is clicking. You feel like the ride from the bottom of the hill to the top is just a matter of turning the pedals. Not a matter of breathing, sweating, and hurting. Just turn them over and here comes the top. Yesterday was a day from my past. A day in which I was again a 24year old elite athlete ready to challenge anyone. Ready to grind them into the dust of the trail and smile at their discomfort.

I used to have these days often. Days that I could hammer myself endlessly. I'd get to the starting line of a race knowing that I'd done workouts that few people alive could have endured. It gave me the confidence to push myself deeper into suffering than I'd ever thought possible. It gave me the confidence that I could ease up ever so much and recover, then do it again. That confidence in racing is everything. I don't have that confidence, but I sure did have one of "those days".

Days like that go into your memory. You romanticize how easy it used to be. You remember them and slowly forget the days Sean had to pull you back on the wednesday nighter because you couldn't make the pedals turn in any sort of respectable manner. Those vanish in your memory as if they never happened. Yesterday's.... they keep you out there looking for the next one.

One memorable day "in the zone" like yesterday happened at the olympic training camp in Kieslavodsk, Russia. Every Russian olympic superstar for 50 years had trained on this 7k loop in the mountains around this valley of roses. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth and if you're not an elite athlete you'll never see it. There I was on the sacred ground where thousands of more worthy runners had sweat and suffered. But for that day I was unstoppable. We did 5x 3k repeats and I was running them as fast as my fastest 3k times. But I just kept cranking them out. We were hammering around 4:30miles on hills in the gravel and it was just a matter of turning my legs over. That day will be with me always. I beat some of the worlds best for 1 day. For 1 workout I saw the possibility,and I chased to repeat that day for years.

Yesterday was the first of "those days" I've ever experienced on the bike. I'd done a good hard workout Sunday (S. Maryland Crit) followed by a medium hard day on Wednesday (Haymarket group ride), so I wasn't expecting much more than a long hard workout. I got what I was expecting, but I got something of much greater value as well. I got to see that I still have it. That on certain days I'm still one of the best athletes in the world. Maybe now only in my own mind, and in my own pursuits, but it was there yesterday, I was unbeatable.

I finished yesterdays workouts a full 2mph faster than before. Clearly ready for Mt. Mitchell. Is this the start of me ruling MABRA and finally living up to my athletic potential?? who knows. Maybe I'll be chasing for another of "those days" for the next few years. But I had one. I still have it. Nothing beats that feeling.

Southern Maryland Crit- Race report

After yesterday's long drive up to PA just to do an hour of riding at 18mph followed by a 2k drag race, I was itching to let fly today. I had my results on saturday, got some points, so time for some fun!!! Since I'm pretty new to this criterium craziness I was pretty nervous with the rain. Tight corners and wet roads I can handle, going into them at speed with other folks... not really something I'm relaxed doing yet.

My plan was to get a good spot staging and never be farther than 6th place. As was the case with the race saturday narrow corners meant violent accelerations. So, I figured with this course taking narrow and curvy to an entirely new level, that anywhere passed 3rd place and you'd be jumping already to keep on. The farther back you were the more intense the jump would be. My other plan was to try to get into a break or just crush myself twice with all out efforts. I figured I had 3 all out efforts in me. Twice to burn during the race and one for the finish. I figured this wouldn't give me a very good chance of winning, but if the race was hard enough it'd wittle down to 15 or 20 guys and I could surely manage top 6 for some kind of points. (that was my thought anyway-however overly optimistic it looks now)

The race was pretty hard right from the start. I was feeling pretty good about the corners. I did find that folks braked going into the turn with the drop off pretty and being conservative and at times that cost me because I had to brake because they were braking then jump. After a while I found it was better to let a gap open by resting and then when they'd brake at the corner I'd end up right on their wheel without jumping. Timing it wasn't that easy, so sometimes it worked and sometimes I screwed myself.

The corner that really killed me was the one that seemed the easiest. The right hand turn onto the street where we all parked. That corner seemed like a no brainer but for some reason it was slick, REALLY slick. I tried all kinds of angles and never, ever, seemed to get it right. I'm not sure if my tires had too much air in them or what. I did see folks letting air out of their tires as it started to rain. But heck.... I didn't know how much air was in them to begin with. Every time around that corner my back end tried to slide out on me. I do ride up on my seat when I'm in the drops, but I tried sitting way back to get more weight on the back tire and had the same result. It could be my tires are crap. I bought them 3 years ago. Back then I thought I'd fix up my bike and do a triathlon or two. So when I bought them my criteria was pretty simple. 1) they say ironman on them... they must be good 2) they cost more then the others.... they must be better. 3) the colors matches my bike, I'll really look like a PRO :-) Now that I've been racing tons it may be time to get a wee bit more scientific in my tire choices and air pressure.

Another one of my goals and something I've really been working on is feeling comfortable in the drops. I've actually been doing a lot of rides forcing myself to stay in the drops the entire time. I've adjusted and tweaked, and adjusted and modified my seat height, my brake levers, everything endlessly until it's JUST right. So this race it really came in handy and I feel like I have a lower center of gravity and can corner much better now. I used to stay on the hoods because I couldn't reach my brakes. Bike fit guru Jared fixed it so I can reach them and I'm sitting pretty and powerful. Sunday was a good testament to that and I'm now in the PERFECT position.

So the race started and I got right into the action on about the 4th lap. I got into a rotation here and there but mostly tried to stay just behind the guys actually rotating. After about 10 minutes I heard someone say the field was already cut in half because of the pace. Then someone attacked. He was strong, really strong. 3 or 4 of us did some really hard laps trying to pull him back, but just when we'd start making progress someone wouldn't take a turn and he'd get away again.

The cool thing was that we were pulling so hard that a group of 6 of us got a gap. I got excited and worked a little too hard. I should have realized that 2 of the guys in our group of 6 were on his team so they weren't going to work. Eventually it failed and the group caught us. The pace had shredded the 30 down to about 20, but now I was tired. That was really what did it for me. I got what I wanted a hard race where I could be aggressive but I went a little too far. I sat in for a bit trying to recover and it took a while. Finally I went back up closer to the front and we were down to about 15 people.

Here's where it all went to hell in a hurry. It was raining good again and getting down to the time to gut it out. I slowed to toss my sunglasses because I couldn't see well. That caused me to work back on. Then a guy in a Georgetown outfit tried to pass on the chicane right before the drop off corner (why the hell would you pass there????) I should have put him to the curb but I backed off and let him in. Then he opens a gap and looks at me. I was thinking you wanted by me so badly YOU pull it back and eventually he did. Then on the next lap he comes out of the corner at the bottom of the hill. Stands up to jump and close the gap out of the corner and just crashes. I had no time to do anything except pull up on my front tire. That allowed me to do a little wheelie just enough to get onto his tire and I totally ran right over his bike. Up over the back wheel, across the frame, and down the front wheel. It happened so fast I was in a bit of shock. When I heard the crash and grinding with no chance of avoiding it I figured I was going down, so the fact that I was over him and upright took a second to sink in. By the time it did the gap was huge and the last few people flew by me. I jumped to get on but I just couldn't get back up to speed on the hill.

Looking back I guess I should have clipped out and went into the pit. It was a "crash", I was "involved"... I should have taken a free lap. As it was the next few corners I was a big wussy, my confidence a bit shaken, so I wasn't able to catch up. The next straight away I worked really hard, but that's right into the wind... so that was that. If that crash didn't happen I'm sure I'd have made it to the end. I was pretty tired, but anything can happen in a mass sprint, especially since it was down to about 10 people. Grrrrr!!! my fault. I took a few too many risks being aggressive, then I didn't have any margin for error. The guy falling was just that error and I didn't have the capacity to overcome it. That's racing :-)

I got in with another guy and we rolled up 2 more. We had a great time "racing" the last 2 laps. I got 2nd in our mini-race and I think I finished around 12th overall. We were probably about 40seconds behind the leaders.

Even though I didn't get any points I had a real swell time. I know my weakness. I don't do enough speedwork. Too many long fun rides and not enough "training". This might motivate me to do some. I think I'm really hooked on this criterium business. It's just great to go all out!!! Plus I'm always surprising myself. I'm pretty new to this stuff, but I'd like to think growing up doing dirtbike stuff, recently playing lots of bike-polo, doing cyclocross, and spending countless hours in the saddle really have me doing pretty well at bike handling. I'd say riding completely over someone in a race and not crashing shows how comfortable I am on a bike. I'm not a pro yet, but I'm pretty happy I have some skills and finished yesterday without asking my wife to show off her nursing talents.

Union Grove race report

John, Olya, and I jumped in the team van and headed up to Union Grove road race in PA early, early Saturday morning. The weather looked to be perfect for racing. Cool and sunny, about 60degrees. Kind of cool and windy for this time of year, but as long as I'm not wearing booties, leg-warmers, or arm warmers I'm happy :-)

I wasn't feeling that well because of some mishaps this week. My crank arm came off during a group ride and my knee was hurting a bit because of the near crash it caused as my foot suddenly lost resistance and jammed into the ground (and my groin into the top tube). I must have tweaked it somehow. I could still ride hard, but every once in a while if I tried to stand and climb or stand and sprint my left knee would just give out. I could catch myself, but it hurt my power and my confidence.

Another thing was that I stayed up late watching basketball and laying on the couch. I fell asleep there and my back was hurting. Not enough to hamper my race, but just enough to make me angry at myself. The third thing I threw in just to spice things up was that I left my helmet at the shop when my bike broke wednesday and John couldn't find it. Anticipating that he may forget or not find it I brought my wife's helmet as a backup, then left it in my truck when we met up to carpool. So I spent my warmup time running around begging anyone who'd already raced for their sweaty helmet. I found a nice older gentleman who was there not as a racer, but as a cheerleader. So I got a dry helmet from him and returned it with a little of my own goodness after the race.

My legs were pretty fresh. This week I did a brutal hill workout tuesday, then only did 1/2 the wednesday tempo ride. Then I went easy Thurs and Fri because I knew I was doubling this weekend. I really felt like this was my course and my day to finally win one. I wanted to be conservative. So if I didn't win I'd at least get some points. So no big risk, big reward crazy attack. It was windy anyway, so you know what that means. Be conservative, be lazy, be a wheel-sucker, then kick at the finish.

I did all that to perfection. I did pull a few times when breaks started to look promising, but I just took my turn, nothing taxing. Most of the entire race was so horribly slow and boring. I'd say it's the most boring race I've ever experienced. It was so windy nobody did anything. I was feeling so good it took considerable control to not jump and take off.

We did 7 laps. The first 5 were pretty slow. Then it picked up. We chased down the attackers the 6th lap and at the start of the 7th we were all together and I was near the front waiting for the counter. It didn't come so I stayed top 4. The course was skinny and curvy. So you really had to stay farther up than usual or you really had to work out of the corners.

Near the finish it widened up so the pace started to roar. We'd gone so slow that the pack was huge. So I really worked to keep up and not give up my position. About 2k to go and I was in my drops and hating life. It was time to grit my teeth and not give up any positions. With 1k to go it started and I figured I needed to be top 4 around the corner. I got behind a big horse of a fellow thinking he'd hammer the flat and I'd jump around with 500meters to go at the base of the small hill. It was working well. He hammered out and I was 2nd wheel, but then he died suddenly (almost violently) and I had to pause a second while 8 guys flew by. I got around finally and stomped on it, but could only get up to 6th.

Looking back I definitely should have gone sooner. I had the legs to win that one, especially with an uphill finish. If I'd have gone a second sooner I'd have had it. I just wasn't expecting him to fall to pieces so far from the line.

Only thing of interest (other than the finish) that happened the entire boring snoozefest of a race was that this guy in green was on the front as we were pace-lining trying to pull back the group. I saw him up ahead tell the passing guy it was clear, the guy moved over right into him and he crashed into the grass on the side of the road (why he said it was clear I have NO idea) Then later I heard some people yell at him that he was a damn pinball and to ride straight. Then in the finishing sprint he crashed for a 2nd time behind the main pack. From what I heard he was all by himself on the hill, working hard to sprint to a 30th place finish and just crashed. 2 crashes in one race. Tough day for that fella'

4points. 12down and 8 to go. Now after a horrible start to the season I've got points in 3 of my last 4 races. More from the old lazy racing and hard fought patience battles than by any REAL effort on my part. But I'll take them however I can get them. My knee hurt throughout the entire race except in the last 2k. I didn't feel it or think of it. So it didn't really effect me. My stomach was feeling really bad after the race, but my energy was up. I stretched and cooled down well, then got to sleep early.

Smelling the roses

Wow, yesterday evening was beautiful. I did some hill repeats with John B. and Pedro. I suffered!! I did 6 of them when I was hoping to do 8 and the last 2 were pretty worthless efforts. My heartrate got spiked so let's hope there's some adapting taking place. That was just horrible!!!

On the way home I was amazed at just how nice it was outside. It seemed I could smell all the trees and flowers and whatnots. It's really green here this time of year and I just love it. Hopefully tomorrow I can keep up with on the wednesday nighter and I'll miss some of the beauty out there. The last few Wednesday nighters I've popped off the back and shuffled home admiring the trees and fields. Not that I admire the backs of my teammates... but hopefully I can glimpse them for a few more miles tonight than usual.

Fort Ritchie Criterium

Fort Ritchie was my first criterium of the year. I'm generally not a criterium guy but my skills have improved so I figured this year I'd give it a go. Last year I jumped into Reston Grand Prix after 2 months of not racing and I was shaking in my shoes (1 size too large at the time). I've been working on my cornering and courage this year and am ready to corner at speed without grabbing a handful of brakes and trying not to be "that guy" everyone talks about after the race. "That guy" who made it miserable for everyone else leaving cascading cries of "wtf was that?" in his wake.

Turns out Fort Ritchie was the perfect "starter crit" for me. The rain in the morning kept many of those registered entrants at home. Cutting the field in half before the start was probably the biggest factor in my success. The course was great. It was nice and wide leading into and out of tight turns so you never had to brake. You could go as fast as you wanted into the corners because the exit area was REALLY wide.

I was doing really good about 4/5 ths of the time. About every 5th lap I'd totally blow a corner (sorry fella's) but I certainly was feeling comfortable. Plus with the wide lanes and smaller field if you made a mistake 40 guys didn't blow by you. You could drift back and make up for it with power on the next open straight. Not a good way to conserve energy, but I didn't feel I was sketchy too often and I felt I didn't "waste" power too often by having to move up like that.

I knew the race would come down to position going into the last corner. So I tried different lines going into it. Inside was a no-no unless you could go in even and push the guy out. Because if you went tight your wheel would make it fine, but your lean would have your head and shoulders meeting the hay bale that protected you from the stop sign. At the speeds we were cornering that was a very probable outcome.

I decided to fake going for a preme in the middle of the race to see if I could attack a lap before the finish and hold it. My goal was to go good enough to make it look like I was going for the preme, then attack passed the line when everyone relaxed. I faked a bit too good and actually only got beat by 1/2 a bike length. I probably should have actually gone for it. I got a huge jump on everyone but once I got around the lake that wind was really tough. I was feeling good, but not 18more laps good, so I sat up. That attempt told me that (especially with the speed that last lap would be) there was no way I could attack and hold them off solo for an entire lap coming back into that headwind.

So on to plan B for the finish. Top 10 with 8 to go, top 5 with 5 to go, then battle from then on (Hell on Wheels). I was going about my plan when an Artimis guy got off the front. GOOD off the front. He was motoring. The hated boys in red as usual were sitting on the thumbs so a Coppi guy went to the front to pull them back. I rotated up and did a good pull, but mostly it was all that Coppi fellow. Once he got it close I pulled hard to pull back the remainder.

Once we got close an Artemis guy, who had been really effectively breaking up our chase, counter attacked. It was really impressive teamwork and really strung out the pack dropping plenty. We had about 6 to go and things were rolling fast so this break didn't seem to be going anywhere. We rolled him up and I sat 5th wheel.

With 2 to go it got really slow and I had to work really hard to maintain my position. I was nervous. This type of mass finish doesn't suit a small fellow. Then an Evo guy came to my rescue and attacked. That strung us out good for the last 2 laps. Going into the last lap I knew I had to be first out of the corner. We drag raced almost the entire last lap and I just couldn't get around before the corners. The last corner I had no choice but to try inside but I couldn't squeeze in. I came out of the corner 4th and I got 4th.

I was happy to have a result, but I'd have really liked to have played that last lap a bit better. I felt pretty good, none of the race seemed particularly hard, but that's how the old sit and kick goes.


After the race I hung out to watch Darren from the Haymarket 'hood. We rode up together. Even though I monopolized the conversation (who'd have guessed) it was very apparent that Darren and I enjoy the same viewpoint. He's a vegan and I'm guessing he fondles trees when nobodies looking. At any rate Darren had an exciting day. He got into an early break and ended up lapping the field. I think just about everyone dreams about doing that. He's a pretty aggressive rider so it seemed to me that he was a key ingredient in making that break stick to begin with. It made for exciting race viewing. Bravo!!!

Cycling Fan Podium

I'd like to give out 3 awards this week to people who went above and beyond to support our sport this weekend. They gave up their weekend to view our attempts at pedal pushing and podium climbing.

First goes to Curtis Prosser, one of the owners of Haymarket bicycles, for jumping on a flight to Colorado to take Steve (a team member) an item crucial to his participation in Collegiate Nationals. While there Curtis took video and reported back to the local community via Bryan. Gold medal to our Director Sportif!!!!!

The Silver medal goes to Kyle Jones who drove all the way up to Fort Ritchie just to watch me race............. (actually his bike held up throughout a great warm-up only to break as we were lining up to race)

Bronze medal goes to Olya Kostina my sister-in-law who has been my cheerleader/team nurse attending almost every race I've attempted this year.

Famous team member

I found this picture on the web just now. I think Pedro on my team is leading a double life. I don't pay much attention to celebrity. So I've often thought that someone could walk right by me without me realizing that they're big time. Shoot not only walk by me... but ride with me.

I think the guy on the bottom right of our team picture (Pedro)

Is actually Sting.

He's always "traveling" for work. He's very quiet (saving his voice??) I really think I may be on to something.

Ahhh Shut UP!!

I started to write how horrible I've been feeling, how much I've been working, and how abominable my training was this week. I was going to say how I miss running, I miss free time, and mostly how much I miss thinking I'm good at something. Then I decided to delete it all and just shut up. It'll get better. I've been an athlete for 21years. I've been here before. It's frustrating, but it'll pass. The conditions that exist in my life creating this will go away and I will succeed. I can't look my teammates in the eyes lately because I feel penitent from my failure to live up to their expectations.

It will pass. An endurance activity is an odyssey not often recompensed on a schedule you prescribe. I will travel on, emancipate myself from the current obstacles in my path and trudge forward.

Just a thought

Just wasting the last few minutes of my workday. I've worked myself silly lately and REALLY nailed a big presentation to the uppitty upps today. So life is good.

Wasting time got me to think about boredom. I generally entertain myself well. It's never taken much to make me happy. I like simple things and I always say I want to spend my life "Doing instead of Having".

I came across this on Yahoo a minute ago. It's something to go along with the smile that I'm taking to the Tuesday Reston ride. More Americans should live the last line.....

"Avoid boredom. You have enough to eat. You can move. This must be acknowledged as a kind of freedom. You don't always have to buy things, put things in your mouth, or be delighted. "

Poolesville- Dust and doom

Poolesville's course description reads like a course made for TerribleTerry. It has something hard on it that causes the race to be selective. Of course it's better for me if that something is a major climb... But anything different than a circle tour of the neighborhood followed by a mass sprint is generally kind to me. The course held up to its' storied fame this weekend, but my strength failed me. Strength and endurance, my claim to fame vanished in the heat and dust on the last lap of the race.

I can't say that I prepared too well for the race. I spent Thursday and Friday working from 8am to 11pm. I did however have a REALLY lazy week of cycling so my legs felt fresh. I really thought I'd have good results, but my system broke down a few hours into the race. I generally never have dehydration problems riding. I usually drink way less than everyone else and just keep going, and going. Poolesville was the exception. Here's the report....

I sat in the first lap because I'd never been on the course. I got to the gravel in about 20th place and shot up the right side. It (like the left side I'm sure) was not entirely distinguishable as a road, but more as a string of potholes lined up in a navigable route through a stand of trees. The line I later found was stay middle for the 1st 400meters then stay far right for the last mile. It worked for me. You kind of had to take what you could get. The first lap however I shimmy shook, banged, and jumped my way down the road. I saw bottles popping like popcorn and got sprayed down with gatorade as someone ran over one of them. I even got knocked by a power meter that completely snapped off someones handlebars. Then, I heard a horrible crash behind me and on the left-most line. I knew someone's day was over, but I just kept motoring.

We got to the road and up the hill and I drifted to the back to drink and noticed the "back" was only about 1/2 as far back. So 1/2 the field vanished after only 1 pass of the gravel road of dust and doom. This was my first 3/4 race that I've done without having done the 4 race beforehand, so I was happy with the pace of things. Actually pedaling consistently is moving was enjoyable. The 3/4 wasn't hammering down the road, but it wasn't a blob of 90 people all waiting for the last lap to sprint either. There were a few attacks in the first 3 laps. My teammate got into two of them so I road a train to the front, got deposited there, then proceeded in a slow and deliberate manner. Each time I was pretty quickly shuffled out of the rotation. Not much for blocking.... but it a good way to be prepared to counter-attack.

At some point in the race I realized that I never started my Garmin gadget. I was paying attention to the laps, so I wasn't worried. I do like to look down and know some key distances from the finish. So it's always nice to get a feel for how far hill x and curve y are from the finish during early laps (just to get it in my head). I also realized that my legs were pure power, but that I was drinking like crazy (odd for me). I didn't drop any bottles. Before the race I had figured bottles would be a problem so I just put them in my pockets instead of the ejection cylinders on my downtube. My thirst led me to become a stalker, lap after lap cruising the feed zone hunting for a neutral offering (or to steal one meant for someone else....) But I couldn't beg or steal a bottle.

With a few to go I really was dehydrating but still feeling powerful. I've wound up a good sprint tons of times cramping, so I figured I'd be fine. I noticed Darren had gone missing after the latest crossing of the road of dust and doom. So I went to the front and employed some passive blocking. A fellow from the Coppi squad didn't like me at the front. He let me know about it. He was racing better than me so I kept my mouth shut and continued my poor behavior. Finally my sub-standard pulls instigated him to attack. The group let him go and I rotated through the front trying to hold up the group. Darren never appeared so I went back to concentrating on racing.

There were 3 pretty strong Bike Lane guys who seemed to be working well as a team. There were also a few Bike Doctor guys. I can't remember which team it was, but one of them kept looking for someone in their group to pull. It was obvious that since they had numbers it was their responsibility so the squabbling started about where's so and so, he should have to do it. It was funny, but they were working as a team and the 3 big dudes in red and the 2 Coppi riders did tons of work, so my hats are off to them. Their was also a DC velo guy that seemed pretty peppy so I had my eye on about 6 guys that I was worried about.

I went into the last lap tired because I tried my dig-diddly-darnedest to fanangle a water bottle out of the stingy feed zone. I couldn't get anything. My team definitely needs someone for support. This is about the 3rd race where I drank mine down and couldn't get neutral support. My sister in law was there, but she had the dog, and couldn't find the feed zone, and whatnots.
Anyways, that made me chasing into the wind on the start of the last lap with cramping legs. There was a group of 10 up front with another group of about 10 trying to bridge with me. I did a good long pull and then totally stymied all of that progress by cramping so badly and doing the herky jerky dance that I ended up bringing our peloton to an almost complete stop (best blocking job I've ever done- SORRY FELLA'S)

I worked pretty hard, and we were going to connect and then someone in our group of 10 went wide into the gravel section. He went for a skidding, gravel belly tour of the poison ivy, so I had to brake hard, wait for the peleton to go by, then jump to try to catch up. I got crampy again and that was that. I was left on the gravel road. I'd never experienced cramps like that. I've also never been dropped in a race because I couldn't keep up. So I was able to accomplish both feats on the gravel road of dust and doom.

As I road in slowly to the finish those water bottles on the ground were looking mighty fine. I was suffering worse now because the race adrenaline was gone. I stuck it out doing my interpretation of the velo chicken dance. I was cramping and swooping and leaning and stretching so much I'm sure I was a comical site. That last 10 minutes to the finish line was horrible. It's not like I could drop out though, because I was parked at the finish line anyway.

I'd say I was like 22nd or something. Not bad considering MANY didn't finish. Not good either but I'm not horribly disappointed. I've become an accepting loser this year. Another poor performance just rolls numbly off my smoothly shaved legs like gatorade from an ejected bidon.

After the race I had to go directly to work for a few hours. I drank a lot and was able to keep going on fumes. By the time I got home and showered I was really suffering. I took my Russian Diva's out to a local BBQ place and felt like I could eat a horse. They didn't have horse on the menu so I settled for pork ribs. While I was eating I entertained the group by twice jumping up in the middle of a quiet moment to show off my herky jerky dance as I was struck by another cramp. A few times I even got cramps in my hands while trying to handle the rib bones. I couldn't eat much at all. I guess I was too hungry to eat. I boxed most of it then ate again later that night. Ahhhhhhhhh what a saturday............