Monday, April 14, 2008

Racing Report - 4/12 & 4/13

Somebody mentioned on Friday that a bunch of the Boulder based pros were using this weekend's events as a tune up for Tour of Georgia. That always makes for an amusing weekend of racing and amusing it was.

Saturday was the Haystack Mountain Time Trial, no real mountain involved, just some rolling roads and a good dose of wind. I stuck with my usual routine of warming up at home on the trainer and rolling out to the race venue with enough time to sign in and put in a few quick efforts to get to where I need to be just prior to the start. I'm still perfecting the timing on it all, but seems to be working decently so far.

There was a cross/headwind for the start of the race with a couple slight inclines to get over before turning east and cruising downhill, with a tailwind. Nothing like being completely spun out in the 55-11 (read: big gear) of course realizing that the last part of the course which is a false flat anyways was going to be into the wind took all of the joy out of that. I tried to stay on top of the biggest gear possible for the last section and pretty much blew up coming into the line which is as good a place as any. I guess this was the first official ride on the new time trial bike with disc and all. The tires didn't fall off and the bike felt fast I guess. Good enough for 10th place. Glancing at the top 10 . . .


There are three of us who aren't getting paid by somebody pro cyclists (or junior world champions) in that list. My goal was to make the top 10, done and done.

Sunday was another exercise in silly racing for me. I spent too much time too far forward in the group. There were several failed bridge attempts made by myself after the break was established and then a completely punted opportunity at the end of the race to get in front of the field sprint in the last lap. I finished with all of my skin, but not too much else worth mentioning. Kudos to Scott for doing the double yesterday and racing both 35+ and P/1/2. Hopefully we'll have more opportunities to race together throughout the season.

Having skipped Cherry Creek Time Trials last week due to weather, I am hoping to get out there this week, but the forecast isn't cooperating as well as I'd like. I can only hope that it changes multiple times between now and then to something more favorable.

1 comment:

Tim said...

nice work saturday. it looks like you were windshield one day and the bug the next.