Friday was a 20k individual TT- the "race of truth." Truth is, I'm not very fast. I rode the wife's tri bike with all the aero accouterments, and was 4 minutes down on the first placed rider. He's a major sandbagger though, as he beat the second placed rider by over 2 minutes. Brian bettered me by 4 seconds on his standard road bike. I think I was like 7th or so. The highlight was racing in the team kits.
Dr. Dingle payed a visit Friday night on his way to the "east coast." He spent the night and drove the rest of the way to Columbus, OH on Saturday. He has a funny story about trying to leave Rochester that is definately bloggable.
Saturday was the the Criterium. I had high hopes for the crit. 40 minutes of anaerobic suffering, just like cyclocross. Foolishly, I did no intensive warm-up and blew up about 5 minutes into the race. So that was that. I threw in the towel and called it a day. Brian found himself in a nice little group and did alright, ending up 15th.
Saturday night Mary, Brian, and I went and watched roller derby. That was crazy awesome. We will definately be back.
Today was the road race. 42 miles of a 6 mile loop. After our underachieving performances in the State Championships we were feeling a little cheeky. The pack, as usual, was super sketchy the first lap with guys loosing water bottles and others riding off the road onto the gravel shoulder. I hate the first few miles of road races. I wonder if Cat 3's ride like that? My guess is that they don't. Anyway, Brian found himself in a nice little breakaway on lap 2, and had about a minute's advantage on the field. With Brian in the break, I just took it easy.
The laps ticked by and Brian was still off the front with a decent gap back to the pack. I was just chillin' and feeling fresh as a daisy when, for no apparent reason, a guy 2 bikes ahead of me decided to break all laws of physics and fall over at 25mph. The guy directly behind him, and directly ahead of me, slammed on his brakes, and managed to avoid falling. I did the same, but the guy behind me thought it would be a better idea to just plow into my rear wheel. So my race ended early with a folded in half rear wheel.
I feel lucky that I didn't fall. There are few things I hate more then road rash. I also feel lucky that, since my bike stayed upright, I didn't break any other bike parts like a handlebar, shifter, or derailleur. I feel pretty frickin' unlucky though that I have a $625 repair bill to deal with. That's part of racing on carbon wheels though, sooner or later shit happens. I just wish it were later. There were really good sensations coming from the legs, and I feel I could have made a good result, but that's bike racing, I guess.
Brian's breakaway got gobbled up on the second to last lap, and he finished mid pack somewhere. He represented the Brown Bear well.
After the race we split a six pack and a pound. I also had a taco bravo.
Tonight we played disc golf at a great course less then a mile from my house. I forgot how fun that game is. We plan on making it a semi regular outing.
Tomorrow Mary and I were supposed to fly out to Missoula for Scotty and Kayla's wedding, but our flight got cancelled because of striking airline workers? So we're leaving Tuesday instead. Whatever. I respect organized labor's need to strike for whatever reason, I just wish it didn't hamper family plans. It's not often the entire Johnson clan gets together.
Maybe I'll blog whilst in Montana.
4 comments:
You summed up the weekend nicely.
The Taco John's was glorious.
Brian Zoolander out!
Way to represent Brooks! Those jerseys look grrrreat! That suck about your carbon wheel. Maybe you can buy a new one with the Team Brown Bear account :)
Six pack and a pound plus a taco bravo? That's more impressive than any cycling feat :)
The BBear kit looks good. Real bummer about the wheel. Your obscure lyrics by Men at Work are way cooler than Brian's.
Wow, taco'n a cheap rim pisses me off. I'd have a hard time busting something like that, because of someone else's Bush League skills.
Post a Comment