Sunday, April 15, 2007

Sex, hills, and gett'n dropped.

The Oxbow Classic is just that. Infamous for it's Oxenburg climb with grades up to 22% and non-traditional gravel roads.

If you are a consistent reader here (may God help your soul) you may remember the bad incident with the eggbeater pedals. With the thought of my 12/24 hour races planned for this year I wanted to avoid a mechanical, so I bought some new Time pedals. Much better quality, better piece of mind. Only problem was that they came with a 50 gram weight penalty, uh oh.

Well we all lined up for the "A" race. This would be my first race with cat 1/2 riders in it. There must have been a sale down at The Gap because 9 of the 12 A1 riders were all wearing the same outfit. How embarrassing! The proverbial gun went off and I went to the front to put in one of my patented 15mph attacks. Because everyone was still fresh I was not able to break free.

Then we hit the Oxenburg hill. I was in great position towards the front, but that is were the good ended and the bad started. Remember that 50 gram weight penalty with my new pedals? Yup, you guessed it, I got dropped on the hill. Not be done in by my own pedals I gave chase and got into contact with the front group again a mile later.

Towards the end of the 1st lap I moved towards the front again with the legs feeling great. I wanted to have as much of an advantage when we hit the Oxenburg considering the huge weight problem with the pedals. Then those bastards dropped me again. Once again, I gave chase and I caught back on. On the way up the next biggest hill on the backside of the course my legs cramped and that was all she wrote. I drank a bunch of water and started the futile chase. It was not to be this time. I finished up the 2nd half of the course by myself, riding just under the effort that would bring back the cramps. Don't know how I finished. I do know that Velorochester took 3 of the top 4 spots in the A2's (and the win). They were all riding much lighter pedals then I was, bastards.

******Warning the following has sexual content (but no reference to nappy headed hoes)**********
The one cool thing, as I was completing the last lap something interesting occurred. A blue truck was making its way up the hill I was descending, only I could not identify a driver. It was not until I got closer that I saw the BACK of a girl (wearing a flowered tank top by the way) bouncing up and down in the drivers seat. Knowing there would be boyfriend checking his rear view mirror I threw up the Hollywood "party on" sign and continued to the bottom. Later I asked my wife if we could get a truck to replace my Jetta.

The steepest section of the climb.


Me trying to overcome the huge gravitational pull from my "heavy" pedals.
The group after they left me for dead.
Trying (unsuccessfully) to get back into contact with the group.


Those bastard pedals. I still plan on keeping them because I figure a 50 gram weight penalty is better than a broken spindle or chowed bearings, but it is still disappointing.



I guess it was just one of those days.

That was a long one today. Do you suppose your boss actually thought you were working?

Thanks to www.skinnyski.com for the pics.

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