Friday, October 20, 2006

Weak, so weak.

Work is for the weak.

Well, I have been sick the last couple of days. Started Tuesday with a sore throut and then in the middle of the night a semi must of run through our house and over me, cause I felt like I get hit by a truck. Poop, poop, poop is how I feel. I did post a new update yesterday, but it did not take for some reason. I am so, so sorry.

Here is a recap of a mtb race earlier this year. I posted these on the team's website (www.velorochester.com) and I stole it back for my site. So with out further typing...


Event Name Afton Alps

June 18th, 2006

20 Miles

Event Description

After winning the comp division at Steeplechase by 5 minutes, I came to the conclusion that when I raced my next mtn bike race it was either going to be on a single speed, or in expert. The next race in the MN series was Afton, and with the wife unexpectedly out of town I decided to whip out the trusted old singlespeed. Mind you, I have been able to get out on it once for 30 minutes on pavement. I was in the parking still dialing in my brakes when I heard the annoucement that the race would start in 2 minutes. I lined up at the back of a 50+ comp feild, nervous about what I was doing. You see, Afton is the hardest course on the series. You do about twice the climbing as any other race. Riding the single speed for the first time in a race that is VERY demanding was a recipe for pain. The gun went off, and I spun like a I was in a hampster wheel. There was a small hill before we narrowed to single track. I was able to pass enough riders on that to get in about 10th. Then we started to hit the hills...OUCH!!! My gearing was way to hard, and I thought I was going to be done after the 1st lap. We had 4 laps to accomplish, a feat that I was sure not possible for me and my singlespeed. I just concentrated on making it up climbs to see how long I could last. Well, after the 2nd lap of pain Gary Gross said I was a 1 miute 20 seconds back of first. He then sprayed me down with cold water. That made me feel dirty like Ben Moore when he enters those wet-t contests on Spring Break. 3rd lap went by uneventful, same pain. 4th lap I was starting to hurt BAD. I was spinning up these steep hills in a hard gear at a whopping cadence of 5. I lost a couple of minutes and was passed by Mike from War Time Coffee. I ended up with 4th overall, 2nd age group, 1st in single speed. The race was 2 hours long, about 1/2 hour longer than it should have been. Had I had gears, I am confident I would have been at the front, but hell, I was the first single speeder in the hardest race in the series. Thanks to Gary Gross for the spray downs, Gary Moore for the hand ups, and God for having the Gary's out there.

Tommorrow I'll recap the criterium I did, the very next day.

Now get to work and I'll try to figure why I can't upload pictures.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Been hanging out with any birds lately? Avian flu?