GMSR hurts

Bicycle Races Are Coming Your Way

GMSR hurts
8/30/2008
VT carbo-loading=maple syrup.

I finally found an internet connection!!! VT is beautiful , but if cell phone coverage is any indicator, people around here still use smoke signals and carrier pigeons to communicate. That, or I’m just a spoiled new yorker who’s a slave to technology and won’t make it 2 days when the zombie apocalypse happens…

So we’re here. We just finished the 2nd stage of the race, which was a circuit race. yesterday was the 6 mile (semi)cannibal Time Trial. It started off with a hill, and then was a mix of flat and undulating rollers. the finish was after a huge dip- a steep downhill followed by a steep uphill- momentum could bring you most of the way up it, but then you had to suffer for the rest of it and finish strong. I made sure to pave myself up the hill and just concentrated on my heart-rate and my breathing. In retrospect, i probably sounded like a coke-head taking a LaMas class. Once i got over the top, i tried to keep the speed between 25-30 mph on the flats, and faster on the dowhills. it was a fun course, and the semi-cannibal rules made it a purer show of athletic ability- it wasn’t as much about the super-retarded aero tt bike etc- it was about going fast on your bike. Although certain people decided to still try and squeeze aero advantages out by doing silly things like wearing helmet covers and putting bento boxes on their top tubes (ahem… mike beckerman…) I finished in the middle of the cat 4 field, with my teammates mike and matt coming in 9th and 11th, respectively (i guess the bento box worked…)

Today’s stage was pretty brutal as far as circuit races go. first of all, it was LONG for a circuit race- about 68 miles. two laps of a 34 mi course. There was a small KOM in the middle and there was one sprint preem. This race was tough in so many ways. the first lap was pretty much a game of accelerate-for-five-seconds-and-then-slow-down. I hate that game… The roads were also pretty terrible- a few people ccracked new carbon rims. i would probably not take that too well….

we organized really well for the sprint preem. not knowing exactly where the finish was, we decided to take control of the front with about 10 miles to go. 5 of us rotated off the front and kept the pace high. as the sprint came into view, we killed it for matt, who’s our best GC contender. He took the sprint! I did the obligatory lead-out-man-fist-pump.

somehow, this course manages to fit short uphills and one extremely long downhill. it was great to spend a few minutes in your top gear, catching your breath after the KOM.

as we approached the finish, we tried to organize again. it proved to be alot tougher. the field had been cut in half by now and the people that were there weren’t having it. Matt told me he was on my wheel, and I weaved through to take first position, thinking he was on my wheel. all of a sudden, i hear the usual cat 4 scraping of carbon-on-asphalt. we speed up. I’m in first position killing it with 300 meters to go. I keep killing it till about 50-100 meters are left. i’m waiting for matt to come around me, but it never happens- instead, the field comes around me and i finish 17th. Apparently matt got cut off in the sprint and ended up sprinting in the grass… the perfect leadout wasted! either way, it was a really fun and intense race.

damage control- between the fast pace and about 4 crashes, haalf the field, along with half of my team, got taken out. rob got taken to the hospital with what turned out to be a bruised ligament. However, since he had cracked his helmet open, they decided to immobilize him for an hour. he was about as pissed as a nun in a donkey show…

Tomorrow is the 80 mile road race that takes us up the App gap twice. I think I’ll win it.

God, I’m hilarious.