Monday, September 19, 2005

Last Stage Race

Well it didn't rain this year.... and I guess I can't complain about the heat.... The first stage went Ok, the TT was lengthened from 10 to 15 miles on Friday...sweet... i went as hard as I could, the only problem is that it's too slow........ well I just proved to my self exactly how fast I am... 14th....... stage 2 was a criterium... new course, and by far the easiest ever...Completely flat and very smooth pavement, only two corners, that you could pedal through. I attacked on the first lap, it was just going to slow and I wanted to get it started. Mid race I bridged up to a 3man break, it was now represented by the four biggest teams....this has surly got to work... somehow it came back two laps later........ ended up back trying to lead our sprinter out for the finish... put in a good 3/4 lap pull at 30mph until about 1/2 lap to go, and then had to struggle to get back on the back not to lose any time... our sprinter got cut of in the last corner by two riders cutting the inside...just missed top 10 after being on the eventual winners wheel up until then....

Friday, September 16, 2005

One more

One more stage race of the season...
Racing has been done for a few weeks now, but one last race remaining this weekend.
This last 2day stage race is always complicated..... there hasn't been any racing and therefore no
motivation to go hard for weeks...and then this... Nobody I know trains for it, but we all still want to do good. This means it will be painful, especially the 15mile TT.
I've done this race now for the last 5years, since I started this road race thing... so even if
it means a 6h drive on friday afternoon/night and then the same coming back Sunday after the road race.....it's worth it...well thats what I tell my self.
The first two years I did it the weather was perfect, and despite the last 2years of rain...I always think of it as being nice.... if it rains again this year I might have to update my view.

Last year all I had to do was finish in the pack for the crit and I would have been 8th on GC... well the rain changed that and I got dropped with 2 laps to go.... (maybe if I had trained for it...)..

The season isn't quite over after this weekend... on tuseday I fly to Bermuda for a series of short races... more on that later.