Saturday - did the Hub ride - felt tired. Took it easy and cut the ride a little short and rode with Ron. The group caught us and I rode with the group the rest of the way in.
Sunday morning - Knucklehead - Felt really good - except for a "little" problem. While we were waiting for the ride - I had to take a major dump - It was really bad. I tried to sprint ahead to Starbucks on Clayton in the strip mall - ran to the door and... They were closed! There is hardly anything open at 6:30 on a Sunday morning. So I sprinted to Schnuck's, ran inside and the bathroom was locked. I was in shit hell. Rode across the street to the other Starbuck's and... SUCCESS!
So, after I dropped 5 pounds and missed the ride, I decided to ride Clayton to Kher's Mill and ride the route backwards until I caught the group. The Hub guys were on the front (Kevin, Ron, Adam, Mark) and I joined in. It was a great ride - the best was Mark who got up front and laid the hammer down. We got stopped at the light at Baxter and I looked back and Mark demolished the ride - all that was left was us!Mark The Anihilator!
Tuesday night crits - rode down with Kevin and raced - felt really good. The race started out and there was a crash on one of the early laps on the back hill - I was behind it but was able to move around it. A gap formed and I tried to sprint to close the gap and instead pulled to whole group back together. Oh, well. I was doing great and with three laps to go moved up into great position. Some dude was yelling for me to pull through the group but with three to go - I held up. I do not know if that was a mistake or not. The last lap got really sketchy and bunched up - guys were bumping like crazy and I got pushed back and finished with a group sprint.
Wednesday - did The Hub throwdown and felt really good. Although the pace was a little slower - I stayed with the whole ride and finished strong. As we went through RocK Hill, the Hub ride caught up with Team Rev's ride and I saw Judy and finished the ride with her - I know, I'm romantic!
That night we had the Webster Crit meeting complete with...beer! We stayed at The Hub pretty late drinking and planning!
Could not ride Thursday or Friday for personal reasons.
Saturday - did the Hub ride and I felt really good. Took it a little slow with some good pushes. When we got back to The Hub, members from Jelly Belly - in town for Winghaven - were there doing a plubicity thing for the Tour of Missouri. It was cool talking to a few of the guys - and the best was the free shit!
Sunday - Winghaven. Hubbers Bill, Bryan, Robert, Eric, Greg and Eddy
The big race - the only NRC race in Missouri. It was awesome having the Sram cars and motos with Zipp wheels following us and two police on motos leading us. Cars with guys with cameras were all around us while racing.
Our race was really early and I arrived latter than I wanted to and so I was only able to take one warm-up lap - instead I took two and lined up at the end of the pack for the start with Bill and Robert. Eddy was on the front line. We than sat and waited at least 30 min. in the heat because things were not set up. We did have some scenery to keep our minds off the wait, unfortunately the heat factor increased (I was not as descriptive nor detailed as Bill! - but the socks with the shorts kicked ass!) Finally the race got under way and the three of us moved up nicely after the first round-about. Tucked in down the big hill and up the short steep climb there was the first big crash on off to the side. The race was going fine except for the back stretch. Guys would break hard into the really sharp turn and then blast it through the major hill on the start/finish line. The fourth lap, I was headed down the back hill and up the steep climb and right next to me - another big crash, taking out a few guys. When we came into the turn for the fifth lap, I was on Eric's wheel and was hurting big time. The temp was really hot and I had drank very little water. The heat was totally getting to me. The sprint out of the corner left me falling off Eric's wheel and falling off the pack. By the time we cleared the second round-about and headed for the hill to the start/finish line, I was gassed and lost all contact. My race was over in a bad way. I regrouped with Eddy and robert and we punished ourselves to stay in the race. We all finished somewhat together. Although I was not there for the sprint, Bryan said he ran out of gas going into the hill, Bill sat up and blocked and I think Eric finished in pretty good standing. After the race we were all so dehydrated and zonked that we just sat on the grass unable to stand because of the heat. When we finished the temp was around 97 and climbing.Other races I saw:
Mark and Michael raced in the Master's 1-4. I didn't see much of the race - I was passing out at the time but I did see the end and Mark - a steady blog follower!- finished with the pack in the sprint - an awesome job considering the talent in the group.
The ladies race featured Alice and Kate. Kate followed my racing strategy and Alice stayed with the group and finished strong. I had recovered by then and took a couple shots:
Kate:
Alice:
No comments:
Post a Comment