Corporate Crit. #2 cat 2/3
Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007
Race: Santa Rosa Crit #2. cat 2/3 4/14/2007
Team: Giovanni Rey
Results: 8th
After an hour of nervous wish-I-knew-where-the-restroom-was driving Jen and I got to Santa Rosa in the nick of time to register, find the little blue palace, and get to the start line. My warmup was two laps from the reg tent to the start/finish and back on a damp rainy day. Ah, but a glimmer of hope... the wind was stopping and a few stray beams of sun were starting to sneak through from time to time as the race started. 50 brave soles took the chance on the weather and lined up for a flogging, Santa Rosa style.
I blew myself out the week before and was completely limp wed/thr/friday so my new resolution to always race at the front and beat myself into being more of a hard man in BPG tradition was put aside. I also needed to hold back and do some sort of warming up and see if my legs had returned to me yet. So... round and round we went. The first 5 laps or so were relatively fast, then 15 slow laps, then on and off again as folks started thinking about the finish. During the slow part I remember thinking how wonderfully pleasant this ride would be if one particular rider would just shut-up. My goodness, that man needs a muzzle. In the second half I stopped tail gunning and started trying to stay between 10th and 20th. I took a few pulls at the front and started trying to see who was strong. No teammates and I didn't know many of the other riders... I wasn't sure, but I had some ideas who to keep an eye on.
3 to go and I started pushing forward. At the bell I was content to be 15th or so. The pace had been decent for the last few and I thought the folks currently at the front would continue driving. I picked my way up to 8th or so, and was chomping at the bit for a chance to unleash on the last few riders after we hit the headwind on the final straight-a-way. With that headwind and all, they didn't have a chance... Their best move was to keep driving it as hard as they could, and I was ready to blow them out of the water if they did. However, Always bad to rely on other peoples competitiveness for my tactics. Oops. So we got a little bit swamped by some cliff bar riders going into the last corner. I tried to jump ship and go with the faster moving bunch when SNAP... The sickening sound of metal failure beneath me.
...silence...
one of those time stopping slow-motion moments. Like when the hero in a movie watches as the grenade pin falls to the ground in ultra close-up slow motion.
...nothing...
nothing happened. f#$!. keep going. "where am I"... 20th or so. Damn it.. Anger, frustration, anxiety, back into fast forward. Dodge right, left, up the middle, left again, and across the finish. I thought 5th. But after the fact it turned out to be 8th officially. 4rth cat3. Both seat rails snapped, but the saddle held together until after the finish. An ok ride. I wish I hadn't hesitated. I wish my seat hadn't snapped. I wish I had worked harder and gotten more training out of it. I wish I hadn't finished with 50% full tank.
Next time. Wente crit next weekend. I'm gonna rest a little and bring out some whoopass.
Ciao,
giovanni
Team: Giovanni Rey
Results: 8th
After an hour of nervous wish-I-knew-where-the-restroom-was driving Jen and I got to Santa Rosa in the nick of time to register, find the little blue palace, and get to the start line. My warmup was two laps from the reg tent to the start/finish and back on a damp rainy day. Ah, but a glimmer of hope... the wind was stopping and a few stray beams of sun were starting to sneak through from time to time as the race started. 50 brave soles took the chance on the weather and lined up for a flogging, Santa Rosa style.
I blew myself out the week before and was completely limp wed/thr/friday so my new resolution to always race at the front and beat myself into being more of a hard man in BPG tradition was put aside. I also needed to hold back and do some sort of warming up and see if my legs had returned to me yet. So... round and round we went. The first 5 laps or so were relatively fast, then 15 slow laps, then on and off again as folks started thinking about the finish. During the slow part I remember thinking how wonderfully pleasant this ride would be if one particular rider would just shut-up. My goodness, that man needs a muzzle. In the second half I stopped tail gunning and started trying to stay between 10th and 20th. I took a few pulls at the front and started trying to see who was strong. No teammates and I didn't know many of the other riders... I wasn't sure, but I had some ideas who to keep an eye on.
3 to go and I started pushing forward. At the bell I was content to be 15th or so. The pace had been decent for the last few and I thought the folks currently at the front would continue driving. I picked my way up to 8th or so, and was chomping at the bit for a chance to unleash on the last few riders after we hit the headwind on the final straight-a-way. With that headwind and all, they didn't have a chance... Their best move was to keep driving it as hard as they could, and I was ready to blow them out of the water if they did. However, Always bad to rely on other peoples competitiveness for my tactics. Oops. So we got a little bit swamped by some cliff bar riders going into the last corner. I tried to jump ship and go with the faster moving bunch when SNAP... The sickening sound of metal failure beneath me.
...silence...
one of those time stopping slow-motion moments. Like when the hero in a movie watches as the grenade pin falls to the ground in ultra close-up slow motion.
...nothing...
nothing happened. f#$!. keep going. "where am I"... 20th or so. Damn it.. Anger, frustration, anxiety, back into fast forward. Dodge right, left, up the middle, left again, and across the finish. I thought 5th. But after the fact it turned out to be 8th officially. 4rth cat3. Both seat rails snapped, but the saddle held together until after the finish. An ok ride. I wish I hadn't hesitated. I wish my seat hadn't snapped. I wish I had worked harder and gotten more training out of it. I wish I hadn't finished with 50% full tank.
Next time. Wente crit next weekend. I'm gonna rest a little and bring out some whoopass.
Ciao,
giovanni
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