WTFM 5-19-08

What a weekend I have to say. This fcking rain on race days has to go. But anyway I am sure some of you want to know how it went for me. Since I did two different races this weekend I have long stories to tell. Sorry to bore you with these tales but I like coming back the next year and see what I said.

Wilmington.

I left for Wilmington a little later than I wanted but with ample time to warm up. So I thought. I stayed up really late the night before getting everything ready so I can just throw everything I needed into the car. I got up, ate, shaved my legs and packed up. I made it up to Wilmington at 10:20 with time to spare for a 12:00 start

I got to registration and have to say poor planning on the part of the promoter on separating the names. There must have been 4 times the amount of people with the last name starting h-m then any other break down. I stood in line for 25 minutes to get my number. After I got my number I was told they have no pins for my numbers. What a joke.

I was a little pissed because now it was 11:00 and cutting into my warm up and time to get ready. As I stood there asking if anyone had extra pins saying they did not think this out an Elite woman says to me “stop your complaining.” There is no complaining anymore. I just said they had no pins. She responds let me guess you are a cat 4. I said yeah she says she can tell. I was so fucking pissed at this bitch for saying that. As I waited for another 10 minutes for pins this Elite woman gets to the head of line and gets told “oh we are only doing mens ¾ right now.” That brought a smile to my face. She goes you are kidding I have been waiting over 20 minutes and nobody told me this. I grab my pins which just arrived and I looked at her and told her no complaining. Man fucking karma must have been working.

I scoot to my car with 50 minutes to spare to the start. I get my clothes out. I packed last years shorts which is fine. Then I pulled out a jersey. Something is not right about that jersey because I do not own half zip jerseys. Turns out I packed my wife’s jersey which is an extra small. Holy shit I packed the wrong jersey. I go up and down the line asking coppi and lance lacy(abrt) if they have an extra jersey. My options were to race in my button up dockers shirt or my wifes extra small jersey. I decided to try the jersey on. I barely got the damn thing on. It was so tight on me. Lance then pinned me up. I had 40 minutes left. I got on the bike and did a warm up on the course that they just finished setting up. I did some strong hard efforts and cruised it the rest with a hard jump. So overall I had a quality warm up.

I go around the line one time and see nobody staging. I come around again and people are corralled like cattle in the running of the bulls on a side street. Shit they are lining up there. God dang it because this course requires you to be near the front to make a difference. So I get in there towards the back because not everyone got there. My biggest mistake of the day was doing that. As guys were coming in they were squeezing on the sides. Shit I am on the very back. Joe Jefferson calls some guys up to the line and I do not know why they got the call up. I wish he called me up. Then the rest of the field gets pulled to the line.

I start DFL in a 120 person field. Shit I was thinking and I am going to have to bust my balls to get up there. I personally started 15 feet back of the field so I can possibly move up on a side that did not get stalled. That did not work. The whistle goes and we are off. I start going hard as I can getting up the sides. It was strung out from the get go. The course was two long straight aways with two short sections. It was a boring crit except for the bottom turn but the location was great. I figured I could not work on the back side because of the headwind and tailgun it to make up time or to keep my momentum.

The whole time I raced was like that cartoon character who paddles on the edge of a waterfall. I would gain ground on about 10 guys a lap on the front side. I would look back and the guys I would blow by fell off. It was so tiring. I stuck in the pack for 8 laps and chased for 2. I probably fell out around 50-60 riders left in the field and another 10-20 guys fell out after me. I got pulled and unfortunately I saw the pack in front of me for most of the time. So I was not that out of shape I just got poor positioning. I was surprised I probably kept a great speed but not fast enough to go faster then the rest to get to the front.

When I got off the course it looked like a war zone of riders having looks of being disheveled and complete loss. You can tell some were pissed about their results of driving (one guy 4 hours from ny) to only last 1-15 minutes in a race. I knew what happened and did not give up until they pulled me. Oh well. I sat and watched lance and Bryan working the front of the field. I was really jealous I was not there. The guy who won the race was so strong compared to the rest it was unreal. Bryan Vaughan looked really good and calm for riding the front every lap. Lance was working well to and actually got in a chasing break that I thought was going to last. Unfortunately lance crashed and fractured some bones in his wrist.

Some coppi guy helped me remove my wifes jersey from this body etched in bronze. It was pretty embarrassing. For that day luck was not on my side or maybe I had bad karma.

Souther Maryland Crit.

After the previous days race I was seriously thinking of picking up the hot sport of Poker. I got down with 2 hours till the race. I made sure I had an hour warm up and got the details for the course from my team mate before the race about the slick spots.

I warmed up really good and got some hard jumps in on the trainer. The rain dissipated and luck might be on my side. When we got to the line it started to rain. You could tell everyone at the line was grumbling “ah man, what is my out.” This was a great course if it was dry. I saved myself more than once on the slick road. One turn both tires came out from under me and I worked some magic to stay up, got some style points there.

This time I lined up better then yesterday and the field was half the size of the day before. So I might be in better luck. At the gun my plan was to get to the front and hit it hard. Well everyone had the same idea as me. I did not want to be caught in a crash or gaps. But Steve Wahl had to take it to another level and broke away for the first half of the race. Wtf this guy could not stay out that long. He just hammered and the guys in the very front did not close the gap. I got to the front and thought why am I burning all my matches chasing and as long as he is within site it benefits me. I stayed in the top ten for most of the race. As soon as we caught Steve this kid from Dc velo attacks and got away. Perfectly timed and he gained a lot of ground. I thought route 1 was going to shut it down because they had a lot of guys in the race but I know we were all suffering.

During the race I kept looking back and we were constantly breaking away and getting caught by the guys in the back. We were losing guys left and right. I would see Todd (bike Doctor), Bryan Burns, or Jose Nunez on my wheel. And on one lap a guy went down in front of the rider of me causing them to crash and I got by but Terry Anderson was not very fortunate and had to jump his wheels. I heard terry behind me saying I just jumped his wheels. That was the last I heard of terry.

We continued to hit it hard and dwindled the pack down to 12 guys. I looked back and waged who was there and sat in smart. I worked the front when we sat up because I did not want anyone catching us but not too much. I was riding smart. On two to go I was in perfect position on fourth wheel for most of the time. The place I lost it was racing to the final corner being complacient not thinking guys will rush around us because the ground was still wet. I played it too safe. Mike Bradbury told me guys were overshooting the corner into the grass and mudd racing to the finish. I thought if I take it a little slower guys will do that and I will go around while they wallow in the mud like pigs. Well that happened and guys were able to still keep there speed up, damn it. I wish I would have it that corner harder because I finished with way to much in the tank. I was very surprised to see Bryan burns charge up the side of me because I did not see him earlier and thought he got popped off the back. And when I saw him do that I was like shit that was when I should have went. Steve won the group sprint and I came in 9^th overall.

I am happy with my result because it is now clear I am back in form and have a chance to place. I was calm and felt in control of the pack except for that kid that got away. Like I said I should have laid it out more because I finished feeling way to good. I did work in the race but should have laid it down when I felt recovered and everyone was hurting. Oh well, I will put it in the bank of mistakes of should ofs. Last year I worked the front way to much and trying to find that happy medium. I think the next month should be better. I felt way better Sunday because I finally shook this stomach bug I had since Tuesday. I felt like I had to use the bathroom like Harry from Dumb and dumber. Except I did not have to do it quite like Harry. It was this sour feeling in my lower intestine and has screwed with my sleep and eating. Thank god that is gone because that just irritated the crap out of me.

Pictures and vid will be up tomorrow I think.