Oh Salida

Getting out of town always seems much harder than it should be on a Friday afternoon. I was lucky to have a 5:25ish (plus or minus 8-10 minutes depending on who you ask) start time for the TT down in Salida, but it still felt like we were pushing it to get down there. After driving through some rain and lots of recreational vehicle traffic, we got to sunny Salida with enough time to register and head over to Sarah's team's rental house which was about a mile from the TT start. She made it out the door and got enough of a warm up in to win her category, not a bad start to the weekend.

I got ready and got myself freaked out about the fact that the base tape was separating on my front tire and I could push the tire around to the point that I started questioning if I would be riding on it. Our start times were delayed ten minutes, then we were back on time, then we had an eight minute delay, then they started sending guys off. Fortunately, I was standing around to see what was what, knowing my effort would suffer less from "ill timed warm up" than it would from missing my start time. I tried to pace myself and keep my cadence up going out to the turn around and then hit it as hard as I could on the way back. I should have saved a little more on the way out because I started loading up just before the finish and probably lost some time in and area where I should have been able to keep motoring. I finished third and took about 35 seconds off my time from last year which I'll take as a good sign going in to my prep for Worlds.

It never hurt to have access to a kitchen while out of town racing. We avoided the downtown restaurant crunch and cooked the usual pasta dinner over at the house (I really should have taken pictures of this unique faux-deco gem) and dined with the bulk of the Pro Design/Porsche team. We had our last laughs about the impending doom of the road race. Leonard and I were the only ones who had done it in the past and knew what to expect.

I heard a rumor from theprosstuff.com that Jon Tarkington was looking to get into an early move for the road race, but I didn't expect him to initiate one mile into our 84 mile race, but I also didn't hesitate to follow. Any advantage I can get going into a climb is welcome and if I can tack myself onto a smaller group after the race has broken up, my chance at getting a good result increases significantly. Jon and I were joined, but abandoned early by Brett Kirby so we went it alone for five glorious laps, building up a gap as large as 3:30. Unfortunately I got caught in the steeper section of the climb and had no real chance of latching on to the group as it passed. There were more than 20 in the group so i called it a day at that point and watched the race unfold from the sidelines.

There was a crit yesterday. It was not a stellar outing for me and I hope to never speak of it again. The drive back was quiet to start, with two grumpy cyclists in the car, but we made it back to Denver with enough time to pick up Dempsey and hit Cherry Creek for some people watching and ice cream. The local racing season is pretty much done for me, crazy to think how quickly it has gone by. Only three races for the 2009 season to go . . . I hope to make them good ones.