room 15

It was a good day, meet Todd at his house to ride to the start. We had a good time chatting and made it registration practically on time. We had already pre paid for the event so that made cycling to the event a bit easier. We planned on riding to the top, hanging out for a bit, get to the bottom and ride 40 more miles.

I wasn't in a hurry to race up the hill, but I tried not to slack either, I had a good time under 50 minutes for 7.5 miles up. Had a bit to eat at the BBQ, then it was time to go.

We jumped the cattle guard and the rest of the hill is pretty easy, have ridden down it numerous times. A car passes me pretty close, so when I had a clear shot to look back, making sure todd was still back there, I glanced back, well its time to prepare for the next turn, as I start to lean, the next thing I see is a plastic sign above the door, room 15.

End result: road rash, concussion and a broken left collarbone

wet then dry

drove up to chico saturday before coz i didnt see myself waking up at 3a to drive 3-4 hours, race twice, then drive back 3-4 hours on sunday. sunday morning 7a, its raining. do i get get ready, do i stay in, go back to bed, no i drove all that way and my team mate is driving up, let's go.

get to the event, get numbers, light sprinkles give way to just wet surfaces. voice mail from team mate, not coming, alright 1st race now is just warm-up for next race.

35+ 4/5 race: clip in, these guys take off, im already on the back, oh well "they're going to crash themselves going into these turns hard with slick tires" im saying to myself. lap 2 davis guy slides out crashes breaks collarbone, do they slow down? no. two laps later 5 guys get tangled up, one guy breaks collarbone, i start thinking pull me please pull me, do they? no. i need a way out, whats that the back wheel is slipping - did i not pump it up - nope its a FLAT! i graciously leave the race. next race: happens in 3hrs.

35+ 3/4 race: this is why i signed up for this event. race with the 3s. though im the only sjbc. those pulling up to the start line i knew this was going to be worth the drive up. whistle sounds the start. we're cruising getting settled in - off the front goes 2, vos and a squadra. fine by me there are plenty of teams here to chase this down. laps pass and nothing so finally i stir things up
i fly down the left take the turn hard hoping that i ll get someone eager to go with me, look back and the whole group is there, lovely, alright time to recover. i fall back to 10th.

another 20 minutes go by and we're in the 10 lap count now, again i go from mid pack this time hard right and i gap the field but again no one comes with me, so after 1/2 lap i settled back into the group and ride the remainder of the race as a spectator. in the end i finished with the group took top 30, top 14 for 4s, 25 mph average, 38 minutes of joy, 180HR avg with a max of 194.

last race of the season

one more race on sunday in chico. racing 35+ 4/5 and 35+ 3/4. looking forward to that 2nd race. love racing with the 3s & i hope that i will be there early next year. in another week or so ill list my goals for 2008.

now holding at 168

only another 3-4 pounds before i hit that magical race weight while still having the power to do my job as domestique. the first month is over, i was constantly hungry, chewed 121 pieces of gum and had a lot of salads. then riding and putting myself through that 2 hour window of not eating or drinking anything with calorie content. it was a struggle, but im no longer walking hungry.

4.4 miles

an email was sent by a climber - need flatlander to keep pace high and eliminate any early breaks. did i mention it was for mt tam hill climb race? why not, i sign up and respond, ill be there. a few days before the event he rode the course, explained that the first 4.4 miles before the turn are flat and into a headwind. with 16 z-team members in the field they could easily control the race and get a rider or two off the front, this was my job not to let this happen.

got up at 4:50a, got there at 7:30a for a good warm-up. we got to the line 10 minutes early to secure our position. ramon and i made up 2 of the 6 guys in the front and clark was right behind us. then gave the countdown and at the whistle i was off - purposely started in my 39x12 - makes for easy clipping in and the first few pedal strokes. quickly i was to the front of the group and pushing the pace high, it was how fast could i get to the right turn where the hill starts. only 3 of us were exchanging blows, a zteam and a amd, eaching taking massive pulls lasting 30-45 seconds. whenever any other team came to the front we quickly shut that down. we cruised at 27 and pushed it past 30 when the headwind became colder. up ahead was the right turn, folks in the road signaling - and at a 193 HR i was looking for a safe spot on the other side of cones.

4.4 miles in 11 minutes

my job was completed with high success, no one was off the front, the pack was in a long thin line and i could barely peddle for the next 5 minutes while i got my HR under control. it took me 52 minutes to ride the last 8.3 miles. my team mates took 4th and 15th, good day for sjbc.

1 1/2 of 3

as we rode through the first lap of 3, i ride up to my team mates derrick and doug. i reminded doug that he was supposed to stay out of the wind, let derrick and i take care of you for as long as we can. on the 2nd lap, derrick takes a flyer, i immediately get to the front and soft peddle, soon a few other guys join him and now there are 4 (sjbc, synergy, big swinging and other one). as we ride around to the 1/2 way mark, team EMC get to the front of the race trying to reel them back, they brought a strong team and they were eager to eliminate that move. we got to the hill, i tried to stay but was eliminated from the pack. rolling into town, saw derrick carrying his bike back to his car, tire problem. 2 laps down, 42 miles in just over 2 hours.

the last lap well...

i finished it but had some moments, slow leak, CO2ed it, got to the bridge, tire is now flat. change it, crawled into the finish line with a 3rd lap of 75 minutes, i was tired, thirsty, hungry, but eager to hear how doug finished. saw doug later that day, to which he said he finished top 10, perfect i said, but next year i plan on staying with you longer.

i signed up for university road race for the next day. note to self: sign up for san ardo only, so i basically donated 23 dollars to velo promo, fine by me, especially after hearing that they were pulling riders.

bday race

too much food the night before, up to late, up way too early to race in suisun harbor. holy crap i hung on to the back of the race, didnt get dropped and placed. nice.

what's left this season:
san ardo, university road race, giro de sf then ending the season in chico.

169.5

its been a while since ive seen the scale dip below 170. ive been working on my diet and exercise seriously for 3 weeks. stopped the snacking and watching the calories intake, cut off the grande lattes and other high calories meals. my rides have been structured, while im at my goal weight of 170, im gonna try for 165 now.

One more tooth

removing the 14 and replacing it with a 15 was a great idea. for months i've been getting tired too quickly on the track, friend from the safeway crew said, "trackies spin" I was spinning last night and managed to last the grueling 60 lap points race.

bad idea

i normally race in the 35+ 4 races, well with all the crits being canceled lately in my area, i decide to sign up for an e4 race. it starts out good enough, i find myself riding in the last 1/3 of the race. so when the group slows down i moved up - well i find myself now in the top 5 guys. long story short i spooked them which caused someone to over-correct, crash. not i, but someone about 40 racers back. that was enough for me to realize time to leave. sigh!

no legs

after riding 120km on thursday everything was feeling great, friday watched some amazing track racing, rode my pre race ride, went out with the wife, got to bed early. woke up race day, felt tight. i already promised the guys i be there, off i go for a nice drive at 6:30a.

get to albany with enough time to do a 12 minute warm up. i thought for sure the lack of warm up would quickly catch up to me. off we go for 40 minutes. the first 10 are hard minutes, the attacks come every lap between turn 2 and 3, the small rise in the street. amazingly i'm still holding on. i tried to move up - but the legs were not cooperating so i forced to ride in the draft of another tall racer.

40 minutes is over, the race is done and out of 50 starters i managed 27th, not bad for feeling like a total wreck the entire race.

under the lights

after a 3 month lay off from the track im back. with the event starting at 7p even us in the C group get a chance to ride under the lights. riding with the lights on is a total trip - you keep seeing your shadow shift and it looks like someone is on your wheel...kept thinking how in the heck did that happen, i was alone a second ago.

we got clouds...

the first tuesday in a long time that the weather hasnt been scorching. the clouds and humid weather played a vital role to the pace of the ride yesterday.