The Tour of Hillsboro

As Saturday came around - I was trying hard to get ready for Hillsboro. I think that back to back Tuesday and Wednesday, without being used to them yet, killed me. Thursday I went for a spin with Michael after work in the cold rain and Friday I took the day off. My legs were still kind of sore the day of the race - not good.

I will say the trip out there was the best part of the day (and pinning a certain person - Oh Yeah!) - I rode out with Rock and Eric in his conversion van. This is not a picture of Eric's van - but it's close!

The race: Overall, This race sucked for me. I know, you are saying - your a suck ass bike racer, well today proved it. I hit a new level of pain and buckled. The race started OK, but my start position was not good. Our entire team started near the back, and I think this was our major problem. We had Rock, Eric, Bryan, Eddy, Mark, Bill H. and Kevin. With the yellow line rule, it was really hard to move up in the pack. Since we were near the back in the pack, covering the surges became huge on the body. I knew this going into the race, but doing something about it is different. Every corner and every hill, the pack just surged and slowed down - the worst were these really tight corners which launched you straight into the wind - with being near the back, the surges were becoming brutal on me. Then all of sudden the pack would slow up and it became super sketchy. I could not move up in the pack - There was no flex - and the race started to suck.

And then it happened... We were hauling down some rollers at about 28mph or so and of course some sketchy asswipe all of sudden lurches sideways for being bumped I guess, I was a little back for it and all I saw was this dude - it was more in the middle - and the entire pack slams the break - Everyone was fishtailing - I was, Eric was next to me, Bryan behind me - man did it suck, you could smell the rubber from the break pads on all the carbon wheels. My left back and shoulder tensed up like crazy - I was not alone - a few people around me had the same sort of pain. This totally blew me up - and thus, at around mile 18, my race became the Tour of Hillsboro - DAMMIT! I rode with Kevin for the rest of the first lap - As I came across the start/finish line - I was like - I paid my cash - I'm going for lap two. So I rode the entire lap by myself. Unfortunately, the rest of my team did much of the same as the second lap blew-up. MY only highlight - which is somewhat trivial - is I saw this guy on the horizon - and I was like - I can catch him - so he was like my carrot - and sure enough, on the last major climb, right before the cobblestones, I took him - Oh yeah - a very, very, very, very, small victory in a sea of shit.

The Tillis Crit was today, but I took the day off - I actually felt great, but in the morning I tripped down the stairs and hit my knee on the window sill - I am telling you, it still hurts. OK, I give up, I need to rest. I did go out with Judy and the kids and watched The Hub ladies race - Way to go Kate - awesome off the front - and Stephanie and Alice - great job and about half of the 4/5 - When I left Bill H and Mark were up front doing some damage to the back of the pack (AHHHH I'm have a Hillsboro flashback). I hope they did well. I hope to get out tomorrow for a spin and be ready to ride the Tuesday Crit.