Pointless!

That is the sum of my first season as a CAT3. It started off promising with a top 10 in Santa Rosa early in the season and then CRAP! 3 Race crashes and picking the wrong races to focus on.

I was really hoping to cat up to a 2 this season but the breaks just didn't come for me and thus I finish this season as I started...a pointless 3! Not that there is anything wrong with that but I think my goal of becoming a climber was a bad idea.

Next season I am going to do what I did LAST season....focus on CRITS!!!

So get ready bitches...in 2008 I will BRING IT! Oh yes, it will be BROUGHT-EN!!!

"D" "N" "F" !!!!

coming into the last 1/2 mile of the 63 mile San Ardo road race...

"D" ON"T!
"N" OOO!!!
"F" UCK!!!!!!

Those were the three words uttered as 2 riders go down in front of me. I proceed to hit them head on full speed. Me and my bike take flight, landing hard on my left shoulder.

Later at the ER I am told by the doctor its a separated shoulder. Season over.

Thanks to Hank (aka Chocolate), Ammon, DPO, and Motorboat for looking after me and being great & patient teammates.

How about a lil' Shake & Bake!

That is actually what is written on the back of the bibs of the team the Fighting Boba's. I know this because I got to see it in front of me when I went up to Santa Rosa for the Tuesday Night Crit series.

After Dunnigan Hills on Sat., the Back to back Suisun Crits on Sunday, intervals on Monday...sure why not race on Tuesday? I arrived a bit late and only had about 12 minutes to warm up but you know what...it wouldn't have mattered if I had a massage and a shot of EPO...I was COOKED and as soon as the race started I felt it. My legs felt like 2 empty tree trunks attached to feet. Basically, I had nothing!

This seemed like a repeat of the 2nd Suisun crit where I had to convince myself to hang on in 5 minute increments. Then a group of 3 or 4 got off the front and I couldn't do a damn thing about it. I was too busy trying to draft and telling myself that this was a good workout and I shouldn't be such a puss. BUT I AM A PUSS!!!

By some stroke of luck, I held on until the lap cards came out. I was SOOOOO happy. I was also happy that I managed to stay in the race. Now since the 3 or 4 guys off the front were not going to be caught, I focused on trying to put together a respectable finish. I noticed the Fighting Bobas guys getting together and if no one else goes, I'm sucking their wheels. With 3 laps to go I am ecstatic..ONLY 3 LAPS LEFT! Then with 2 to go the Bobas go to the front and are setting a nice tempo and leadout. I position myself right next to the guy they are setting up for the sprint and heading into turn 2 I take his leadout wheel as he sails wide and barks at me for not letting him take his teammates wheel.

Excuse freakin' me but last I checked, this is a RACE and just because you guys wear the same tights doesn't mean you automatically get the wheel...fight for it Boba. When his teammate looks back and sees me he sits up. So....I sit up. No one came around. Then all of sudden his teammate is back and the leadout is on again...SWEET! I am in perfect position...3rd wheel and we are flying heading into the last turn. Coming out of the turn, lead Boba pulls off and yells "right"! Why did he yell "right" you ask? Because that is where I was pushing him to the left and making him break the cross wind as I wound up my sprint. As we dashed for the finish I quickly pulled even and as we came to the line I did the track throw winning the bunch sprint...That's what I call "Shake & Bake"! What does that do, does that blow your mind? That just happened!" (Ricky Bobby)

I finished 4th or 5th...not really sure since they only count the top 3 places for cash BUT since it was a CAT3/4 race, I finally poke into the top 5 this season. Sure I wasn't first...but then again I wasn't last!

A Chance at Redemption!

Today's chance at some sort of redemption for the 3 flat mishap takes the shape of the Suisun Criterium in Suisun Harbor, CA. A lovely little hamlet with a small downtown crit course of .52 of a mile. That means lots of laps!

Without teammate Darren to race, I decide to do the 35+3,4,5 crit in hopes of taking advantage of the advanced age group and finally getting some upgrade points. The race starts with a near full field and we are off for 36 laps of pure joy.

Right off the bat, a guy goes clear and in this race, (with its short course) if you can get out of site you have a chance to stay away because the pack will forget about you. Not this year....I wasn't about to let that happen again. After 3 more guys made attempts to bridge and join the guy off the front, me and about 3 other guys pretty much did a bulk of the work too bring the race back together. Once that happened I was pretty cooked and decided to sit in for a bit and recover. Thats when another attack happened. Unfortunately NO ONE responded. (this is why you need teammates) Now there were 4 guys off the front and soon they were out of sight. DAMN!!!

With 10 laps to go, I was hoping the group would finally pick up the pace and we could try and get these guys back but to no avail. With 5 laps to go it was all about setting up for the final lap....even if it was for 6th place. With that said, 2 more guys bolted and being blocked I couldn't follow and no one else bothered. God I hate racing sometimes but there was some good blocking going on. Now heading into the final lap there was still some type of pride still on the line and that is what I was left racing for. Unfortunately the group bunched in the last 2 turns and I had to touch brakes a few times but bounced to the inside and got to the finish in 9th place. Probably the most dissatisfying top 10 I have ever netted.

So with the race now over, I should just go take a nice warm down ride and go home right? Normally that would be the correct answer but I am not normal and like I said I was not satisfied. So to punish myself for the 9th place finish, I took a 5 minute break and got back on the line for the next race...the CAT 3. F*&k it I thought....I'll use it as a workout.

The original plan was to try and hang for 20 of the 40 laps...that would be a good workout. After 5 laps in, I thought there was no way I could do the aforementioned 20 laps. At 10 laps I convinced myself that I could do the next 10. With 17 completed there was a surge and that was almost the end of me but I hung on. Then I saw it, the 20 lap count had been achieved. Pull off and go home...good workout right? Yeah..but that didn't happen.

So I convinced myself to do 5 more, just to see how I felt. When I got those 5 laps in, I decided I could do 5 more. Now there were 10 laps to go and NO ONE was running away with this race. The pace was high and pack was moving but I was still there. So I said to myself "Self, at 5 laps to go I will pull off, by then it will get fast and I will pop". I truly said it to myself, but it didn't happen. With 5 to go I was still there and I was moving up. In a starting field of 80 I was now sitting in the top 25. The I told myself, I would go till 1 lap to go, then just cruise the last lap. Good idea...but didn't happen. Now with 3 laps to go, my balls started growing. I have a shot in this freakin' race. I'm going to go for it! Then it was 2 laps to go. There was a surge and I stood on the pedals and there was a cramp! Uh oh...better ease off a bit. As we entered the bell lap, the pack surged again and again I was out of the saddle and now there were 2 cramps. 1 for each quad. As we hit turns 3 and 4 I was about to just sit up since I was boxed in. Then a lane opened up and I shot thru and the cramps shot thru my legs again. Coming out of turn 4 I wasn't in bad position but I couldn't contest the sprint and finished out 22nd.

Oh well...considering I just did 76 laps with virtually no rest in 2 consecutive races, I will take it. And it was a really good work out!

FLAT FLAT FLAT!!!

3 times I wrote it because that is how many flats I got yesterday at the Dunnigan Hills Road Race.

Flat #1...10 minutes before the start of the cat3 race. Luckily I brought a spare set of wheels for the follow vehicle. I stayed calm, changed the front wheel, fixed the flat and got to the line.

Flat #2....10 miles into the race cruising along in the top 20 or so and feeling good. As we make a turn, poof. Flat #2. This just happens to be the rear wheel. Instinctively I raise my hand high, riders go around and the wheel truck pulls up. But not quite close enough. I need to run back 30 yards to her. I grab my rear wheel and make the change. As I look up the road, the race is going away but a bit of luck. A guy named Mike, who wants to race for the Mouse next year pulls off and comes back to try and help me get back into the race. Sweet! We hammer and can still see the bunch when all of a sudden the wheel truck pulls in front of us. SWEET! She is going to let us draft up and get back into the race. Not quite. She dangles 30 meters ahead of us never letting us draft and after a mile of this tease, she takes off...DAMN!!! Basically race is over. My future teammate and I continue taking pulls but its an exercise in futility. At least it will be a good workout. Then we come across another rider who tells us the group is going slow and we can catch. All of sudden its 3 of us taking pulls and trying to pull ourselves back into the race. We paceline and bust our ass for 10 miles. Then the 3rd guy says they are only 5 minutes up the road. 5 MINUTES!!! What is this guy smokin'!!! We are not getting back into this race. I decide to save some for the Suisun crit tomorrow and sit up but my future teammate Mike had already given up the chase and is no longer around. Lonely now I soft pedal till Mike and the 30+ race catch us. We jump in and draft off of them to the start area. race over.

Flat #3...Now back at the car I decide to ride the 3 miles to the finish and watch. Just as I get there a group is sprinting for the finish when all of a sudden there is a loud POP and riders go down. In what I can only describe as a SPECTACULAR CRASH 3 guys go down just before the line with 1 guy flying upside down and backwards crashing into a Velo Promo road sign and crossing the line. HOLY CRAP!!! THAT WAS AWESOME!!! (hope that dude was ok) With that, I figure I have seen enough and start heading back to the car when flat# 3 happens. DAMN!!! I now race back to the car as the front wheel continues to lose air and get there just as the tire goes completely flat.

My day sucked but after seeing that crash...it could have been worse.

Same to You!

So my best friend Kevin from Phoenix, AZ came to town this past weekend and instead of racing, I decided to take him on some rides and show him what cycling in SF is all about. No flat windy desert like conditions here. No 5am wake up calls just to get a ride in before it hits 100 degrees. And NO kids or wife to have to race home to...it was like a bad "Flomax" commercial but we looked WAY better on our bikes and at NO TIME did we take the yellow miata for a drive...THAT would have been gay!

Friday I took him up Ol La Honda and down Skyline. Saturday saw us start with the Roasters Ride but peel off, stopping at the Java Slut (mmmmm hot girls serving coffee...and I don't drink coffee) and then Alpine DAMN! Then Sunday, since he could barely make it up and down the stairs of my apt, it was an easy Paradise Loop. Did I mention Kevin is quite the Mr. Cranky Pants? And this weekend they were hiked up to his nipples after each ride.

All in all a great weekend of riding and Kev was hooked. Considering he has not been riding much since getting over his back injury, he did fine......BUT he has vowed to come back in shape to kick my ass up the climbs. All I can say is BRING IT!