I am actually updating this thing! Since Deer Trail I've actually been racing a lot. On April 19 I won the Wednesday night TT up Gold Camp road in the "b group", brad gave me shit that I was racing with the "b"s but there is no way in hell I can even be competitive with him. The Wednesday night TT series has been a lot of fun, and I am I little bummed not to be able to do them all. Not much really interesting about them, just ride as hard as you can for about 20 minutes, no strategies no tactics just embrace the pain.
My next race was the Pueblo crit the course was down town and part of it even ran right in front of my house. The day's racing was fun and I had one of my better crits to date. I finished in 7th place, but I was most happy about the way I rode I lived at the front collected a prime, andd just raced well. On the finial lap I went on a flyer (i figured I can't beet a guy like Rodney in a sprint) and was swept up with half a lap to go. The other cool thing about the race was it was the first time my mom has ever seen me race.
Next on my agenda was the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. I signed up for the omnium with is like a stage race but instead on cumulative time it works on a weird point system.
The first day was the road race from Durango to Silverton, About 47 miles with 5500' of climbing. Our group was nervous and a little twitchy from the starting gun, we hauled ass across the false flat catching the pro women group surprisingly fast. I went to the front on the start of the first climb to Purgatory ski resort I guess my tempo was hard enough because a small break away group formed around me and we worked pretty well together and we shelled off all but one on the "passengers" by the time we reached the base of Coal Bank Pass. On the way up Coal Bank we dropped everyone else until it was just five of us remaining. I was caught a little off guard on the descent before Molas pass and was dropped. I fought my way back into 4 th place on the climb but the 3 leaders remained just out of my grasp. On the final descent the guy who hadn't done any work attacked and went on to win, I was passed again on the descent to finish in 5th place. My best finish so far in a road race.
Day 2 Downtown Crit. the race started bad when I missed clipped and racked my self on the top tube and thing just kinda continued down that path. I got dropped on the third lap by being stupid and following the wrong wheel, the guy let a gap open and I was chasing the rest of the race. I tried to help Kieth at one point but to no avail. It was educational! Finished in 21st place, a rough day in the saddle.
Day 3. Time Trial my nemesis. This had to be the coolest TT course I have ever ridden. Rolling, twisty, scenic and would be a great place for just a fun road ride. What can one say about any TT you just go out hard and hope it's good enough. Icaught a few guys on course and didn't get caught by anyone so for me that is always a good thing. I finished 10th or 11th which put me mid pack in the TT.
We started with a 125 guys lined up for the road race and 20+ at the end of the TT. I understand you don't have to do all the events to do well in an omnium, but I thought more people would do all 3 events but a lot of folks kind of picked and chose what events they wanted to do. But after some weird ass math I think I ended up 7th overall. If it would have been on time I would have been in the top 5 maybe top 3, but those are the rules and I should have understood them better going into this thing. Not like it would have changed anything.
Last weekend I raced the Rist Canyon Hill Climb race. The race is not you normal hill climb race, were it is on hill/mountain and it's mostly up hill. This race starts in Masonville and loops about Horsetooth Lake and then finishes on top of Rist Canyon. So the race is more like a spring classic with the prerequisite short/steep power climbs and then ending with a mountain top finish. I like this course a lot, it is just a fun ride and the backside back to Masonville is one of the best rides in the state. For the first half of the race I just stayed near the front and tried not to lose too much time on the descents so I wouldn't have to chase back on, a lesson I learned the hard way last year. On the start of the final climb the lead group was about 20(we had all ready dropped over half the riders), I went to the front about a mile into it figuring I would rather dictate the race than have it dictated to me, I also thought if I set a hard tempo it would discourage any attacks. My hypothesis held until I let up just a fraction to let someone else do the donkey's work and the eventual winner attacked. I thought some of the other contenders would cover the move but no one responded right away so I started chasing again and a few other guys started to pitch in but it was to little to late so about 2 miles out I attacked on a steep part and a dude from blue sky went with me, he counter moved me with about 3/4 of a mile to go and I was slow to respond, I was reeling him in but just ran out of road. I finished in 3rd, 45 sec behind the winner 10 sec from 2nd. I just suffered the last 3 miles of the race, with 1/2 mile to go I questioned if I could finish. Pain and Discontent!
On a totally different note I really like the new Against Me! record and the new Off with their Heads record. Both bands put a lot of hard work in these albums.
re pics from the weekly Hill Climb series in Colorado Springs (some from this week some from last week). The pictures are from Pikespeaksports.us. Thanx! Last nights race didn't go as well as I would have liked it to, we were running late so I got next to no warm up in. That is a shitty lesson to be reminded of! My time was less than 30 sec off my PR, but still disappointing. I was still psyched on the race, it was like riding in one of those cool Ralpha ads, overcast with light snow falling. Not much else to say about a 4.5 mile and a 3.1 mile Hill Climb. It is a style of racing that doesn't have much tactics, Just open your mouth and pedal Hard!
