This weekend...
...was a buttload of fun. I'm feeling fit and I've had some great training during the last few weeks at home. I've gotten to do some motor pacing as my mid week "hard workout" and I've had some nice rest. Next weekend is the next USGP races and I think I'm more ready (more ready than at Gloucester, anyway...).
Saturday was fun, it was the first edition of a hopefully annual race that was held at White's Hill Elementary School in Fairfax. I ride past this school just about every day, so it was kind of cool to race near my house. The course was a lot of fun, it incorporated some soccer fields, dirt roads and twisty paved school-campus terrain that is always good to have in a cross race. There was a rather small field assembled for the mens "A" race, maybe 15 or so. This included my HRS-Rock Lobster temmates Simon Vickers, Aaron Kereluk and Rob Evans as well as local boy Cameron Falconer. Casey Kerrigan blew the whistle and off we went- Simon and I rode easily away from the field by the end of the first lap. We rode like gentlemen for the first 35 minutes or so, Simon slowed his pace as I bobbled a technical off-camber section and I shared a bottle with him that someone handed me. We went along at a decent clip but found time for conversation... But I got to thinking with 3 to go... Simon's not going to let me win this without a fight, so I might as well throw down the gauntlet. I attacked as we got to the soccer fields and slowly but surely opened a gap. With 2 to go I was thinking he was popped but kept the gas on just in case and on the last lap I just made sure not to crash. It's been a while since I won a race and it felt good. Our HRS-Rock Lobster team took the top 4 spots on the day, so it went well for everyone! Shelly Olds also was 2nd to Rachel Lloyd in the womens race, another fine performance.
Here's a teeny-tiny picture of me doing a wheelie through the finish...
Today didn't go so well. I got to the Velo Bella Surf City race in Watsonville a little late and really only did one easy lap as a warmup... I thought the race started at 2:30, not 2! Oh well, I got a warmup yesterday. I didn't get a call-up since I haven't done any races in this series, so I was second row in a field of 40 or soof Nor-Cal's finest including both Jaques-Maynes (dressed as each other, I wonder how many times they've done that over the years), Barry Wicks and Justin Robinson as well as all of HRS-Rock Lobster's hardest hitters. The start was a really short bit of pavement (50 feet? probably less.) into a left hander onto dirt and then into the barriers. As Casey blew the whistle yet again, I got chopped within a few pedalstrokes by... Hooptie? Well, not exactly chopped, but his spokes or wheel or something caught my front brake caliper and shoved it down into my wheel renering my bike useless! Once I figured this out and ran to the pits (which were pretty close by) the field was gone! So, with a functional bike I did the only thing I could... I got into the pain bag and I stayed there for a good 3 laps. I rode myself inside out, passing people as safely as I could till I ended up with the internet's own Olaf Vanderhoot, who was wearing a bumble bee outfit. We went back and forth for a while, but he seemed full of vim and vigor so I sat on his wheel for a lap to catch my breath. At this point someone said we were riding for 6th place, which was a surprise. So I set off to try and catch up with Simon and Justin, who I could see up the road a bit. Plus, there's no way Hernando's beating me when he's got a fucking bee suit on. I could never catch on to them, but I rode around for 6th pretty well.
Today's race wasn't too glorious but it was great training for next week since the start will be very fast and I won't have a good call-up with my 2 UCI points. All in all, I think I'm on track for some good racing if I can keep my shit together. I've got no idea what the CO races will be like but I'm game for whatever and I'm travelling with Simon so I'm sure it will be an entertaining trip, I'll try and keep more on top of the blog and bring the entertainment to YOU.
posted by Barb @ 9:37 PM
4 Comments:
i heard the bumble bee had quite a buzz on.. Thanks to New Belgian brewery.
uh ... Peter Pan was flying quite high, as I recall.
that "sunshine" brew from New Belgy ... like buttah.
Joshy - too bad you had that wheel-up with Hooptie. Looked you were riding smooth and groovy. i thought we might get you close enough to JRobo & Simon for you to jump across to their wheels ... but, ah well.
go get em next week. who knows what that course will be like...could be wide open power or a snow pit. boulder schizophrenia.
I will yield my front row from now on! I think next week I will start last...so it looks like I am improving as the race goes on.
Whatup Josh! We're looking forward to you, Simon and Evan coming on out to Boulder. This weekend is going to go OFF. Lot’s of excitement here in town already…which started last week with the arrival of some heavies into town we trained with. I pre-rode Sunday’s USGP course today (un-taped of course) in super chilly weather with a small crew including the course designers. They wanted our feedback and all we could say was holy poop. It takes place in more or less a giant bowl with the Flat Iron mountains as it’s backdrop. Sick. The course is sincerely 90% awesome grass with an uphill start/finish pavement section. It will be Gloucester like with lots of turns, off cambers and also includes a maze sand pit running section which I think they will intend to force a dismount/run. We’ll see. That’s what they tried to do in CCCP but people rode that beach all the time. The course will be tough but I suspect will keep the race tight. Xilinx the day before I have raced many times and is essentially lots of dirt trails meandering through a huge field inter-mixed with pavement. They too will have a sand trap which some seasons feature barriers within it (to ensure running) others not. Since it’s UCI, ther’ll be only one set of bariiers allowed so we’ll see how creatively they place those puppies. There’s an interesting jump they will invariably throw into the course as they do every year at Xilinx. Some dismount/jump it but is WAY faster to jump and keep rolling. It’s like a little 2 foot wide rivulet. See pictures of it here:
Thomas Prehn-Former US Road Champ in the 80’s and now an advisor to our team showing the dismount action:
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?user_id=11501&tmpl=35&event=28448&action=viewphoto&photo_id=431587&album_id=29214
C’est Moi jumping that thing.
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?user_id=11501&tmpl=35&event=28448&action=viewphoto&photo_id=431614&album_id=29214
We’ll see what they officially do on Friday as I think they are allowing pre-riding at Xilinx so we can go and dial it if you guys feel up to it. Have safe travels man and we’ll see ya out here!
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