Aside from a rain-induced hiccup, my racing season marches on. The DRT stop at Wapehani was a good one, with a more World Cup style lap count – 6 laps of about 6km each (yeah, with World Cup counts comes World Cup units). A nice small hill to sort out the pecking order into the woods saw me in P1. I must have subconsciously channeled Todd Wells because I was railing that trail like I never have before. I had a small gap that I was just trying to maintain (not extend) since I was feeling good and wanted it to stay that way. Unfortunately my first semi-mechanical of the season dropped in to see what condition my condition was in, in the form of a slipped front derailleur cable. This left me with a tiny 29t front ring with which to ride. Not ideal since I’m more of a big dog guy, but I wasn’t going to take a technical break to fix it.
Photo courtesy Matt Link
I still rode well, and the 29t really probably helped in a few small punch climb sections. I rode yet another consistent race which makes me think I’m a little better at pacing than I have been in years past. In any event, my last lap (actually the last 3k probably) wasn’t so awesome. On the last steep climb I noticed my HR was about 30 bpm below my normal race average. Clearly this is not good. I ended up hemorrhaging several minutes to first, but held on for second. Of course I can’t download my data because Vista 64 doesn’t have IrDA drivers, but that’s beside the point.
Anyway, last weekend’s race was postponed canceled due to rain, which left me with a Sunday to make up for no race effort. I wanted to get in a good hard road ride with some climbs so that I could beat myself down. All told, I got 4 hours in and just under 70 miles in with two hard 5 minute efforts plus a few county line sprint dubbyas so I guess I get the virtual Green jersey.
Speaking of Le Tour, I was disappointed at the end that it was over… it seemed to fly by, with excitement every day. I guess I expected Contador to win but it seemed like he was always looking for approval and acceptance as a force to be reckoned with. Was it me or did his eyes seem like he was looking for someone, anyone, to give him a thumbs up? I guess he would have been looking for a pistolero from somebody, or whatever the hell stupid logo is on his hat. Anyway, he was most definitely the strongest guy, even on TT day, with taking 30 freaking seconds out of Mr TT himself… I pity the fool, Fabian Cancellara.
I do have to say thanks to DVRs… there is no way I would have been able to watch coverage as efficiently as with 2x and 3x speed fast forward.
Finally, this weekend should be a cracker (learned that from David Millar and Bradley Wiggins!) of a good time… Revolution Bike and Bean is hosting the midway point SAG of the HMBA century with burgers, dogs, PBJs and various other goodies. Of course there will also be coffee and espresso, so come on out to 10th and Grant in Bloomington for some sweet fun. I’ll even buy you a shot of espresso if you mention this post. If you cough up $5(with proceeds going to HMBA) , you can eat grilled goodness, too! While you’re there you can register for the DRT off road Time Trial at Brown County State Park on Sunday. It’s a point to point from the North Gate to Hesitation Point. It’ll be awesome, mainly because there will be hotdogs at the finish line.
later.
-the ATM
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