puttin' the hurt on
crit last night. only an hour, which went by pretty quick. my head was totally off. the course was a bit dodgy. there were a few corners with big (3-4 inch) drops or bumps in them. potholes and big cones marking hazards presented further hazards. anyway, with a wheel that wasn't quite round and my fresh wounds i was pretty much fuh-reeked out. i'm never freaked out. but is was scared. when you're scared in a crit, you can't ride effectively. i was working way too hard because i was braking too much in the corners and having to catch up with the guys in front of me. that's hard work. halfway through the race i got a bit more comfortable, finally figuring out some of the good lines though the corners. but then, i flatted (luckily on a straight where i could roll into the grass). got over to the wheel pit and got a neutral wheel. then i realized that half the field was being lapped at on that lap. well, i wasn't as bad as those guys! i got back in and we decided to go to the front and work to pull back a break. well, i went to the front and worked for about three quarters of a lap. dustin pulled through on a rough corner and the health net guys wouldn't let me in. nobody would let me in. and i was drifting and getting busted. i finally got in, but was was worked after being out for so long. eventually, i gapped off and chased for three or so laps. with two to go, they pulled me. lame thing: everybody off the back got the same time. i didn't get jack for working to stay out longer. damn.
looking for dinner was difficult. apparently all the restaurants close at 900. it was 915. its a dry county, too. anyway, we wandered around and found a super cool coffee shop (espresso!) that had randomly had a dinner party. they let us in on some awesome gumbo. $5 for as many bowls as we could eat. fruit smoothies too. what a find.
road race today at 730 am. up at 530. damn. some of the guys ate a big breakfast. i had cozy shack ride pudding. ah yeah. well, there wasn't any time to digest those big bowls of cereal. damn. the race was a mere 60 miles. 15 miles flat, a couple miles climbing out into some flat terrain and then back over that climb for about 12 miles flat. the kicker: $500 hotspot about a mile before the climb. we went out hard getting into the attacks trying to get off for the hotspot. i certainly wasn't warmed up at all. it felt more like crit speeds than road race. anyway, i was fatiguing when a couple guys got off. that's what i get for trying to rest a bit. it looked like they were going to come back and i hopped onto the mercy train but it was too late. ran out of real estate. when we hit the climb a group immediately jumped off the front sans any broadmark riders. owen broke a chain near the bottom. damn. the neutral service guy put him on a neutral bike. he even wanted to drop a plumb from owen's knee to see if it fit right. ha! it wasn't even flat! anway, i slogged over the top at the back and hit the flats at the back. worked up to the front. i eventually went to the front to help the aerospace guys chase the break. well, just my luck to be on the front when we started climbing back over petit jean, the climb we'd done earlier. i came off with a group and put some smart efforts in to get back to the group. once in the group i tried to get further up but the climbing started again. it wasn't really such a hard climb but i wasn't feeling it at all. terry gave me some good power feeds but i was just off the back of the caravan over the top and i couldn't get back on during the descent. i was caught by three guys and we motored in.
back to the house and our host, ginger, has made spaghetti with meat sauce and lemonade. we put the hurt on that. ah yeah. i took a good 2 hour nap and now i'm trying to recover from that. we're watching "pimp my ride". i hate TV. guys are staggering down from their respective naps.
