Saturday 7/29/06

Cat4 road race. Pretty much the same as last year. But at least it was consistantly fast. Thanks to my new Polar I know that all the laps were in the 23-24 mph range (last year started out really slow). It might have been a good race or a result....but I will never know. I flatted on the start of the 5th (and final) lap. The wheel truck was up servicing the break (which was being swallowed up anyway). I rode the softening tire until the truck came back, took the change, and never saw the field again. My tire was completely flat, so I had to take the change. So that is how my road race ended. I rode it in 2+ minutes behind the field. (BTW, the break was away for most of the race, but was reeled in right around the time I took a wheel). All in all, it was a muggy dreary day of racing, but it was a day of racing. I have all my skin, so it must be a good day....

I am doing both the TT today and the Crit tomorrow. Sounds like there will be a few for the crit, so that will be nice.

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By some small miracle it did not rain on the TT (the radar looked nasty pre-race). They ended up shortening the TT from 10 miles to a little over 7 miles on the same out and back course. I pulled about 18:05 which should put me about where I was last year (8th/11). The wind made for a significant negative split (I ran 9:40 out, 8:25 back). I will find out how I fared compared to others tomorrow at the crit.

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Sunday 7/30/06

Cat4 crit-Didn't see any other SCV'ers out there... ;-P What happened? Anyway, the hour long crit played out pretty much like last year, although a bit faster. At about 40 minutes, I drifted back to take a drink (very nessecary in this field). I apparently missed 6 getting up the road. At about 50 minutes they did a pack prime... there was one guy 100 feet off the front of the pack, so I tried to bridge up... saw that I wasn't going to make it. Coming over the top of the big hill, I saw I had a 5-10 second gap, so I just started to ride, passing the guy that got the prime. A half-lap later, someone comes up behind me. Thinking I am caught, I look back. It is only one guy and it is a guy that ride with all the time in Memphis. Sweet. We trade pulls for 6-7 laps remaining and stay away from the field. We even started to pull in the break that was up by 1 minute, coming within 10 seconds of them. The race ended with Jarrett Kinder (Smith & Nephew/Memphis Velo) and I...7th and 8th. A top 10, but well out of the money ($100/5 deep, not a great purse).

The funny thing is that both Jarrett and I basically felt terrible before race. But once the race started you forget about all that. Kind of pissed that I totally missed the winning break, did not even see it go! The course was such that 10-20 seconds is out of sight.....