Sour Grapes

Weather looked good; no rain and sunny. Only problem, it was cold as Hell. Car thermometer read 32 degrees.

I'll keep this one short so I don't say too many things I may regret. I have a teammate who said he would be in a support role and help me maintain my 3rd place in the overall standings. I point out 1 rider who can overtake me and say, I have to finish within a few spots of him or I could potentially lose my 3rd place standings. Simple enough, right? My teammate gets in a break. Guess who immediately bridges up? The one rider who is a threat to me (I saw him go too late or I would have tried to tag along). I'll also add that this one rider was a threat to the overall leader in the standings who had a few teammates with him and none of them were in the break.

Here's a quiz, what option would you do if you were the teammate up front?

1. Do absolutely no work in the break after recognizing the danger rider had made it?


2. Work your ass off to make sure the break stays away?

You guess it, he chose option 2. To add insult to injury, there where 6 riders in the break, the payout goes 5 deep, and he finishes 6th. I lose my 3rd place in the overall standings.

Of course, it's not all his fault as I knew who I had to watch. I honestly don't know if I could have made or stayed in the break if I went with him anyway. Here's my racer's excuse; I had a GI sickenss start on Wednesday and I lost 4 pounds, the bad way, by Saturday. Option 1 would have;

• If the break stuck, he would have been completely fresh and probably finished higher than 6th. No one in the break could fault him for not doing an ounce of work for defending his teammate's high overall placing.


• If the break was caught, he would have been fresh for helping lead out his team sprinter and trying to protect his overall lead. This scenario would have also tired out the team for the leading racer in the overall giving an outside chance for me to move up in the standings.

The pre-race talk should have went like this, 'I'll be here in a support role and help you out anyway I can unless something comes up and I think I can do well myself; in that case, forget about helping you maintain your overall standing'.

Sour grapes? You bet as a top 3 overall standing was one of my goals as soon as I heard they were making this a series this year. I ended up 5th in the field for 11th overall on the day...

Crash Photos

Photos from Saturday's crash (photos borrowed from Truesport)...

St. Patrick's Race (Branch Brook Park)

Branch Brook race course

Huge field for Saturday's race at Branch Brook Park. I'd guess ~80 racers. The forecast on Friday was for a chance of rain and snow, but we didn't get anything (hence the largest turnout of the year yet). On real nice days, this race will attract 80-100 racers. My goal was to finish up in the top 10 to try and maintain a high overall placing (I was ~3rd overall in the series going into this race - I say approximate because they never posted the overall scores!).

I decided to sit near the front / middle of the pack and mark those racers who were in front of me in the standings. Eric was there and played a support role for me (thanks!). With the pack this size, nothing was getting away today. Uneventful until the last lap. I make my way up into the top 15 going into the 180. I was on the inside and someone on the outside decides to cut me short. I almost go down and had to clip out and stop to avoid falling over. Shit, 30-40 or so racers pass me and I think, 'that's it, I'm at the back with a mile to go'. After the 180 it is pretty much downhill into a flat finish. I clip in and start sprinting and working my way up as fast as I can. I'm surprised to find my self in the top 3 with ~500m to go. I try my best to sprint and hang on, but I faded to finish 11th. I guess that catching up took a little out of me. I lost some points in the overall as the 1st placed rider finished 7th and the 2nd place finished 8th. Hopefully I didn't lose too many points to those behind me.

There was a nasty crash that happened right on the finish line. The story I heard afterwards is someone ran into the back of a sprinting rider and took him down. This occurred about 1 bike length behind me. The racer that crashed was quickly diagnosed by the EMTswith a broken collar bone and some ribs.

Race Photo - 3/15

Just found this photo on the Internet from last weekend's race. Here I am sitting nicely in the middle of the pack. I can't wait to race without leg or arm warmers! Tomorrow's race looks like it will be done in cold and possibly rain or snowy weather...

Awareness Test

No dick spot this week!

I was worried Saturday’s Branch Brook race was going to be another race in the cold and rain. Driving up to the race, it was pouring and once again cold. The 1st wave of races that went off before ours was done in the dark and rain. I was surprised they were able to start at 6:45am especially after we set our clocks ahead last weekend (sun rise doesn’t officially start until ~7:10am!). I guess the cycling Gods were looking out for me this weekend as the rains stopped and the clouds began to clear 5 minutes before our race started. No rain, very wet roads and the temperatures were in the low 40’s. My goal for this race was to at least get a top 10 placing to maintain a chance of a podium spot in the overall Branch Brook series standings.

A decent sized field considering the weather (I counted ~40 – 45). Pace starts off faster than the other week. I make an effort to stay in the top 10 and get into anything that looks threatening. After 2 laps of this, a break gets up the road and I start to help bring it back. I look around me and know one wants to help (even those teams that had 3 or 4 people in them with no one in the break). I make a decision to not burn myself out and play the odds so I go to the back of the pack where I’ll stay until the end of the race. I’m not going to cost myself a chance in the sprint to bring it back for these guys! One real dangerous break gets up the road. The strongest rider who was driving it flats and that ends that one (I have a feeling it would have stuck if he hadn’t flatted).

With 2 miles to go in the race, a break of 6 gets a big gap on the field. I make sure I stay in the top 5 and hope someone will drive to get them back. I was on Jon Chambers wheel until about 1.5 miles to go (he finished second last race and is sprinting real well). A little shuffling at the front of the pack and Jon is on the left and I’m a few riders back on the right. Jon takes off with over a mile to go and I’m momentarily blocked on the right. Jon is gone and closing fast on the break. The person, who was initially blocking me in, decides to go after Jon and I sit on his wheel. He blows with over 500m to go. I look behind me and I have a nice gap on the field. I think, shit, no man’s land and I’m going to be swallowed up at the line. I have no choice but to put my head down and sprint (those who know my sprint know I’m best with 50m – 100m so this far out was going to really hurt). I start picking off the ruminants of the break (swerving around them). I see the line a few meters in front of me and see a wheel about to pass me on the right. I reach deep, stand up and sprint and hold on. Jon nearly catches and nearly went through the break. He ended up second and I ended up 4th.

That’s two second places for Jon. This should put him nicely into 1st place in the standings. Earl finishes 5th (he won the 1st race) so I pick up 1 point on him. He’s the one who nearly catches me so I’m glad I reached deep to hold him off. Hopefully I move up into the top 4 after this week.

Got my top ten, made it into the money, and sprinted and held on for over 500m (which is very encouraging to me – I’ll have to start trying to go earlier and who knows what will happen). The last Cat 3 race I won, I started my sprint past 300m and won by a few bike lengths, so maybe that form is starting to come back to me!

Flooding

Today's race was canceled due to flooding rains and high winds! I have mixed feelings as I was getting myself in the mood to race in the rain all week (long range had rain forecasted for today), but am glad since last week's rain race was a ton of fun...

I plan on racing on Sunday even though the forecast has winds gusting over 40mph!

Racing Season has Begun!!!

Today was the first race of the season! I nearly didn't bother to go. The weather forecast was predicting 1"-3" of snow locally with more up North (the race was in Newark, NJ). When I woke up @ 4:45am and looked out the window, no snow! That was a good sign, but it was pouring rain and in the 30s. I looked at the weather map and it looked like rain in Northern NJ that would pass sometime in the morning. I suck it up and head on out.

When I arrived at the race course, all the snow had been washed away by the pouring rain with just some slush on the sides of the road. Great, no snow, but it was 34 degrees and pouring! I grab my number, take a crap, and then pretend to warm up. I didn't bring my trainer and I really didn't feel like riding around in the freezing rain until I had to.

I always liked this course. It is a 30 mile circuit race (6 laps) with a power hill that leads into a 180 turn and has a 1.5 mile slightly downhill finish. In addition to the day of race prizes, this year there is also a season long overall series. This series is held on each Saturday for the entire month of March (5 races this year).

All I can say, is that I could not feel my face for the first 20 minutes of the race. The rain and wet spray with the cold weather completely numbed up my face. When that feeling started coming back, I lost feeling in the toes and fingers. Those who know me, know I hate cold weather riding and I had problems getting the legs going. Typical Cat 3/4 race with some very fast paces then slow down and fast. I rode up to another sprinter with 1/2 a lap to go and told him I just couldn't sprint today. Someone takes off solo with about 2 miles to go (he would hold it and win by inches). ~500m from the line my sprinter auto-pilot takes over and I muscle my way up into 5th place in line. At about 400m, someone sprints to the very front and starts leading out the pack. Of course he blew big time and completely sat up coming back at us at like 10 mph slower (must have been a Cat 4). He came very close to taking out about 4 of us who where just about to ramp up our sprint. 10 people instantly surge past us. Oh, crap, there goes my chance at a good placing. I put my head down and do my best to pick my way through those who were able to surge past me. I end up getting 6th overall. Guess what? Dick spot as it paid 5 deep. At least I salvaged a decent placing, got some points for the overall, and placed when I wasn't even going to try.

Oh yeah, when I got the car packed up and was waiting for results, the sun came out...

There's a couple of races on the schedule tomorrow, but its too early to do back to back races and I think I'll just go for a ride.