Sunday, April 5, 2009

Tour of Logan County Road Race

I am afraid to start this entry because I could talk for hours for what ended up being a character building ride with no result for me. And I might make a lot of lame excuses, bitch moan and cry to explain my lack of result while seemingly being bi-polar and bragging how well I raced in spite of it all. But many times in team racing success is not quantifiable by your own results. I got dropped several times and fought back on and had to cover every move for 30 miles while my team mates Dan and Brian were up the road. On about the windiest race Ive ever been in too.

I had one of those days where every attack and every climb hurt and felt like you had no power. Well that evening at home I got a sore throat so maybe thats why. I also rode extremely hard Thursday and didnt get in a recovery ride Friday. Excuses, excuses!!

The reason it was character building was how bad I felt, but how hard I had to ride the whole race to "do my job". I even survived getting popped off the back when Grimm attacked and two guys in front of me gave up. I came around them and while struggling to climb in the wind Jeremy looked back, saw some guys off the back and attacked again!! I sprinted back on repeatedly even though it felt like my legs were going to explode.

Sadly after 30 miles of working through the rotations and following anyone of the 6 guys left in the main group that tried to push the pace we caught them. I expected Jeremy to launch an attack and stayed on his wheel for a few seconds then launched my own counter as hard as I could. I didnt want to, but I had to. I was hoping others felt as bad as I did and if nothing else we would drop from now 8 to maybe 2 or 3 and I could fake it and hang on.

I didnt turn around (using that old adage that when you attack you go all out, dnt look back) hoping that I had blown apart the group, but ended up just pulling us around for too long putting the hurt more on Dan and Brian than the rest.....Grouppo Compacto. The 8 of us circulated around with Brian trying to get away again. But Matt Weeks slowly rolled away and no on chased including Carbon Racing. He had helped us by not chasing down Brian and Dan with Inferno, DLP and RGF and a strong, but unnattached rider who sadly had no clue how to ride his bike in a race so we repaid the favor by not chasing him.

With a couple miles to go Jeremy attacked us hard. I was in my small ring at the time, thighs had been cramping for miles and no power and F@#@$#$@%^ I got dropped and couldnt chase back on.

Jeremy blew past Matt on the descent, but Matt held on for 2nd. He too was complaining mid race that he was about to get dropped. So great for him to get 2nd solo in his first race of the year.

Down the 8% descent to the last corner I watched as Grimm motored away from the main group that motored away from me. Even the descent was hard today when Jeremy would drive the pace down it.

After the race my thighs felt like they got hit with meat tenderizing hammers and I was beat, my stomach was doing back flips. Tris broke his derailleur 10 minutes into the race and that's a crap way to spend a day hours from home. And he loves a hard race, but maybe I am a bit jealous he missed this one and I didnt (just kidding, it was awesome to almost survive it). What a day in the wind and hills. The Map My Ride of the Course looks tame, but I guarantee with the wind it was really tough.

Its Sunday and I do have a sore throat and am stuffy in the head. I cannot decide if a day off or a nice slow spin for 2 hours would be better. I bitched all the way home about getting dropped and having no power. Character building for sure. Sadly my excuse of being under the weather doesn't hold any water since Jeremy won with a cold. Congrats Jeremy on an amazing Spring.

1 comment:

JC said...

Thanks Ray! I am putting Vicks up my nose so I can sleep. Hope it all goes away soon. All I can think about is Caylin she has it bad. Praying that it will just be a cold and nothing more.