5.03.2008
Sprint, Fatboy, Sprint!
Here's a little picture Randy was able to catch at the end of my race. I'm the one coming up on the left.
Redemption
When I decided to come down to the Tour of the Gila I had one primary goal in mind, to place top 5 in either the stage on day two or day four. Of course I hoped for a win, but I was practical about my aspirations. As someone who hasn't won a race in over 7 years, a win is probably on its way so long as I keep progressing, but I'm not quite there yet.
Today I reached my goal, but just barely. I threw caution to the wind for most of the race and tried repeated attacks. I can't say exactly how many I tried, but it had to be somewhere between 5 and 10, my last coming with just three laps to go. I was pulled back rather shortly after I went on this last one, it maybe lasted a lap, but it was worth the effort. I guess the pack was very interested in sprinting, wish I had received that memo. I maybe wouldn't have burnt so many matches had I known.
When you boil it down, you can't be too disappointed with a 5th place in pretty much the largest Cat 2 race in the country. It isn't a shabby result.
Oh, by the way I'm still sitting in 11th overall, there wasn't any change to that standing (obviously with a pack finish).
Tomorrow is the big day, we have 103 miles with 5, that's right, count them, 5 categorized climbs. I haven't yet decided on a tactic, so we'll see what the day brings. After that we begin the long drive home. Look forward to seeing everyone back there, especially a special someone whom I love and miss oh so very much (just two more days, baby!). Depending on the hotel situation we'll see if I can provided a play by play of how the Queen Stage went down.
Night world!
Today I reached my goal, but just barely. I threw caution to the wind for most of the race and tried repeated attacks. I can't say exactly how many I tried, but it had to be somewhere between 5 and 10, my last coming with just three laps to go. I was pulled back rather shortly after I went on this last one, it maybe lasted a lap, but it was worth the effort. I guess the pack was very interested in sprinting, wish I had received that memo. I maybe wouldn't have burnt so many matches had I known.
When you boil it down, you can't be too disappointed with a 5th place in pretty much the largest Cat 2 race in the country. It isn't a shabby result.
Oh, by the way I'm still sitting in 11th overall, there wasn't any change to that standing (obviously with a pack finish).
Tomorrow is the big day, we have 103 miles with 5, that's right, count them, 5 categorized climbs. I haven't yet decided on a tactic, so we'll see what the day brings. After that we begin the long drive home. Look forward to seeing everyone back there, especially a special someone whom I love and miss oh so very much (just two more days, baby!). Depending on the hotel situation we'll see if I can provided a play by play of how the Queen Stage went down.
Night world!
5.02.2008
Achilles' Heel
Read this and you will understand immediately what I'm talking about.
So, um yeah. I guess I need to work on this a little bit. In the grand scheme it's not that bad. I guess I didn't finish dead last today, and really I did minimize my losses pretty well. All in all I picked off a couple people and a couple people got me. Net result was down one place. 11th overall going into the fun day of the race isn't too bad. Really, all I can say is that I went as hard as I could and I couldn't have done any more.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll remember to take a few photos of Randy and Baker racing later in the day. By then I'll know what needs to be done to take a bit more out of this race on the queen stage.
TTFN.
So, um yeah. I guess I need to work on this a little bit. In the grand scheme it's not that bad. I guess I didn't finish dead last today, and really I did minimize my losses pretty well. All in all I picked off a couple people and a couple people got me. Net result was down one place. 11th overall going into the fun day of the race isn't too bad. Really, all I can say is that I went as hard as I could and I couldn't have done any more.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll remember to take a few photos of Randy and Baker racing later in the day. By then I'll know what needs to be done to take a bit more out of this race on the queen stage.
TTFN.
5.01.2008
Tour of the "Gila" Monster
Of course I know how to pronounce it, but saying gea-lah is so much more fun than hee-la. Things are going far better than planned so far. I'm staying out of trouble for the most part, so that's positive. It always amazes me how crashes happen. I saw two out there today and I just had to wonder how/why. I guess I can't say too much. I've had some pretty crazy and stupid crashes in my day. Over time you learn how to avoid these things. The weirdest part about both high speed get-offs I saw today was that I was sitting in the top 10-15 and they happened in front of me. Pretty rare if you ask me.
Anyway, back to the post about me! I'm really please with myself thus far. I'm feeling really good out there, even climbing with the best today as others fell off the pace. I'm not used to that feeling, looking back and seeing less than 15 in the group. The rush is enormous. Here's the recap thus far...
Stage 1
Nothing was really sticking until a counter to one of my moves got away, a full 50 miles into the race. After that another group got away and I was able to jump across to it. We worked our butts off and finally after what felt like 40 years, but probably more like 40 km we made the junction and were a group of 11. We lost a couple after the feed zone and hit the final climb as a group of 9. I was promptly dropped but kept a steady pace. I was caught and passed by 6 others who were trying to bridge in a later group, but was never caught by the rest of the pack. 15th on the day, not bad for a "sprinter."
Stage 2 (today)
Today the move went without any effort at all, it made me very jealous after all the work I put in yesterday. Steve, my teammate out here was able to get across to the group on the climb, so there were now 9 up the road and I had a reason to follow wheels and be smart, the way I prefer to ride. We took it pretty easy up the first half of climb #1, but started to speed up at the top. On the way down we had one of those pesky crashes right in front of me, but I was able to thread the needle between fallen riders at high speeds and not really lose any momentum. Made it down in one piece and hit the base of the second climb. It was game on for this climb. We held a good pace at the bottom, and about 3 km from the summit we started going faaaaaast. When we hit the top there weren't more than 20 of us in that main field (started with about 50). Next up, crazy descent. Nothing much happened on the scary way down to the valley, two thumbs up there. Once in the valley we continued going fast. There was a heinous crash and that was about it for the valley. We hit the final climb and I couldn't quite match the acceleration of the top guy, but was fine in the pack. In the end we almost caught the lead group. I finished 15th (again), only 24 seconds back of the winner.
End Result
I'm sitting in 10th overall, only 3 minutes out of 4th. We'll see if that's doable. I'm sure there'll be people gunning for me and much will change in the TT tomorrow, but I'm confident. I know I'm one of the stronger guys at this point so now that I have the confidence I think I'll do better.
Back with updates in the near future.
Anyway, back to the post about me! I'm really please with myself thus far. I'm feeling really good out there, even climbing with the best today as others fell off the pace. I'm not used to that feeling, looking back and seeing less than 15 in the group. The rush is enormous. Here's the recap thus far...
Stage 1
Nothing was really sticking until a counter to one of my moves got away, a full 50 miles into the race. After that another group got away and I was able to jump across to it. We worked our butts off and finally after what felt like 40 years, but probably more like 40 km we made the junction and were a group of 11. We lost a couple after the feed zone and hit the final climb as a group of 9. I was promptly dropped but kept a steady pace. I was caught and passed by 6 others who were trying to bridge in a later group, but was never caught by the rest of the pack. 15th on the day, not bad for a "sprinter."
Stage 2 (today)
Today the move went without any effort at all, it made me very jealous after all the work I put in yesterday. Steve, my teammate out here was able to get across to the group on the climb, so there were now 9 up the road and I had a reason to follow wheels and be smart, the way I prefer to ride. We took it pretty easy up the first half of climb #1, but started to speed up at the top. On the way down we had one of those pesky crashes right in front of me, but I was able to thread the needle between fallen riders at high speeds and not really lose any momentum. Made it down in one piece and hit the base of the second climb. It was game on for this climb. We held a good pace at the bottom, and about 3 km from the summit we started going faaaaaast. When we hit the top there weren't more than 20 of us in that main field (started with about 50). Next up, crazy descent. Nothing much happened on the scary way down to the valley, two thumbs up there. Once in the valley we continued going fast. There was a heinous crash and that was about it for the valley. We hit the final climb and I couldn't quite match the acceleration of the top guy, but was fine in the pack. In the end we almost caught the lead group. I finished 15th (again), only 24 seconds back of the winner.
End Result
I'm sitting in 10th overall, only 3 minutes out of 4th. We'll see if that's doable. I'm sure there'll be people gunning for me and much will change in the TT tomorrow, but I'm confident. I know I'm one of the stronger guys at this point so now that I have the confidence I think I'll do better.
Back with updates in the near future.
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