How'd it go for me

I had a couple of good days of racing last weekend. Saturday I did the Master 1/2/3 crit at Landpark. I told myself that I wouldn't try any heroics. Just sit in toward the front and make sure I didn't blow up. Mike Hernandez was a one man wrecking machine as he got in a 4-man break and proceeded to ride John Fairbanks (Specialized/Sierra Nevada), Nathan Parks (EMC), and one other off his wheel. Mike continued his reign of terror by winning the Pro/1/2 later in the day.

I got a kick out of talking to my teamie Brian Choi after the race. He says: "I'm making a list. Hernandez is on my list. I mean he's a nice guy and everything, but he's still on my list. I'm going to need to wait another 6 months before I can start crossing people off." Brain is totally great to ride with. He's returning to racing after 12 years. He used to race P/1/2 in the Chicago area. He's totally cool and unassuming. He can totally bring it on the bike too. Can ride the flats and hills, and he'll burry it for his team. He unwound himself pretty good in the last 3 laps of the P/1/2 crit trying to set up our Tim Creswell (6th). I'm hoping for big things for Brian at some point this year, and I'm totally psyched he's on our team.

I was feeling pretty good at Zamora. At the end of lap 2 (20 miles in), I followed a Spine attack off the front and started rotating through with Spiney and a VSRT dude. We worked together nicely taking 20-30 second pulls and built a decent lead. We were a little underpowered as a breakaway. Spiney looked like he was a better ascender than a roller and VSRT looked like he was a better roller than ascender, if ya know what I mean. I didn't care if it was a winning break as long as my team was getting a free ride. So with three of the bigger teams not represented in our break, the pressure was on them to pull us back and my teamies were getting a free ride. I was also more than happy to ride tempo with these two rather than riding the white-knuckle lurch express with 60 or 70 of my closest buddies within 5 inches of me in the pack.

I believe the chase fell to AMD. I can't imagine they were chasing that hard because we weren't going all that hard in the break. Anyway, we stuck it for about 7 miles. By the time the pack caught us I was warmed up and feeling good, so after a few miles rest I launched off with another attack at about the same point the first one started (30 miles in). This time it was Chris Baker (EMC), AMD, and a Trumner Pils rider. No Safeway or Spine, so again I was happy to work this break. We were just starting to get organized when unfortunately Ron Castia bridged up from EMC. AMD and I stopped pulling as Ron sort of killed the balance. In retrospect, I should have kept working this hard as it really would have put Safeway under the gun and there was still plenty of race left to be worrying about a EMC loaded break. Live and learn.

On the back side of this lap a 6-8 man break got off with EMC, AMD, Safeway and Spine but no S/SN. It was a little too far to bridge and had to be controlled since all the teams were in. I and my team mates Dan Bryant, Matt Rozek, and Martin Tam pulled it back. We brought them in just before the KOM hill (really more of a bump than a mountain) and as soon as we got close attacks started flying from all the other teams. I was feeling my prior efforts. I hung on for another 12 miles or so (through 50 miles) and then took a powder on the last lap. By this time the "strong men of the peloton" (Ligget voice) had come to front and were driving it. See how it played out in the last lap on Hernando's blog.

Tuesday night ride

So we do this mid-week race ride on our team. Used to be on Wednesdays, but this year we moved it to Tuesdays. We did the first one yesterday. Basically this ride is all about Matt Rozek making us all suffer. Matt's one of the stronger local hammers and he likes to ride hard. Really hard. All the time. Most of us old geezers like to ease in to it a bit. But Matt typically drills it early, drills it often, and drills it some more until the ride is over.

I will typically try to go with Matt when he goes and inevitably he flicks me the elbow when I'm already red lined behind him. I will usually pull through because... well because pulling through just seems like the honorable thing to do. If everyone would pull through then we could take short pulls and have plenty of rest. The problem is many people don't pull through and I am usually completely blown 1/3 of the way into the ride. I can't blame them honestly.

Now, we also have Peter Allen on the ride. Peter certainly can hang with Matt, but he's a little more copacetic on making the ride fruitful for everyone. He guides us toward easing up a bit so we can have a better workout overall rather than ride to the point of explosion. And with Peter's experience of course we all listen. Well almost all of us.

My favorite part of yesterday's ride:

Matt: "Peter is going to yell at me"
Me: "Because we're going too hard?"
Matt: "Peter is going to yell at me. He wants us to ride tempo together."
Matt: "But I'm going to attack."

Ha Ha Ha, got to love em both. I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to ride with these guys on a regular basis. Even if it hurts.