Silverman half Ironman Race Report

Silverman race report:
I have done a few tri’s in my day. And I have done even more through my clients. Learning every steep of the way. But sometimes I still get caught up with THE question, “are you a triathlete?”. I don’t label others or my self unless its absolute. Well now there is no question, the Silverman triathlon is the most beautiful and toughest course I have seen. If you are wondering if you should label your self as “Triathlete” or are maybe looking to redefine what you are capable of do this race!

Race: At 5 am my eggs and rice didn’t taste so great but I got it down. A power bar, gel, lots of panicking and we were off! At first I felt no so good the my women’s med. wet suit wasn’t the best fit but after a few minutes I found my rhythm. No sooner than that we hit the windy part of the swim. The swells were… big. I have swam in the ocean, body surfed, played water polo, I have even been thrown off a horse. Swimming in the 2+ foot swells was worse. I was simply being tossed, I could hear the tri geek gods bellowing out in laughter. HAA, HAA, HAA, a road cyclist thinks he can simply run for a few weeks and do this race HHAAAAA!!! And for a few minutes I thought I might not make it! But after some wounded seal like swimming maneuvers I was into the tail wind then back to the cross wind but I was handling it a bit better. I could barely make out the buoys but still managed to swim pretty straight. People were all over the place. At first I tried to find a pair of feet to follow but one wave and they were gone.

Up the chute to T1. pretty smooth. I bent over while sitting down to put my shoes on and my legs, both of them, seized. Ahhhh… “Ok I’ll just pretend that didn’t happen.” Out of the tent to my bike and ... a tail wind greeted me making the ridiculous climb out from the lake a bit easier.

Bike: right away I was passed. A big guy came by, “now for the fun part”, he said. As I watched him pedal away I thought, to hard. He’s mine. It wasn’t long. 5’ or so before I had passed him. “OK EK keep it easy!” I did, just letting my legs fall. The HR was high but the legs felt good. I pushed on. Coming up the first turnaround, Maca was coming the other way, I checked my mileage. Holly crap! I thought. He is really far ahead of me. I began to think that my fasted bike split goal was no longer in the cards… ohh well stick to the plan. I counted the guys in front of me and I was now in the top ten. Nice! Turn around at mile 23, fast riding for a bit and I came into the second half on the course. Hills, big long head wind hills. I passed a few more riders, slower now. Yeah, I thought, I must be in the top ten these guys look good. On to the bike path, Yes a bike path! 3 short climbs back to back. The 3 sisters they are called and I would not want to meet mom or dad. They were biters at 18 percent. I simply “let” them be hard and then pushed as the path turned into the head wind and plowed upward at a low grade. 2% grade + 20mph head wind + 300 watts equals me going some where between 12-15 mph. It was not for the weak minded. I pushed, I caught one more. Boom! Out onto the main roads now more head winds and long gradual climbs. Some fast riding too, 47 mph fast! With 8 to go I was pretty cooked, with 6-5-4 to go I was really, really cooked. I kept stuffing fuel down my throat. I had no more acceleration, but I had enough to hold on.
Into T2.

I put the shoes on, grabbed my food, and was off. “heh, how far ahead is Maca?” I asked “peffff…. Ohh god… like 20 minutes I think?” “Yeah that sounds right”, said his side kick. I was in disbelief. Time to switch hats, or off with the “racing” helmet and on with the lets just finish, hat. Or no hat really, but new shades.

The first mile is slightly down hill. Nice! I liked it. I could find my rhythm with out having to fight to hard. At just over 1 mile you turn right. And into the head wind and up a 2 mile climb. I looked at the profile in my head. I quickly came up with the plan of really keeping it in control as 90% of the up hill running was in the first half, then it was more down hill. I thought make sure I have enough in the tank so that I can “let my legs go” on the down hill. I was on pure feel now. My HR monitor watch had kicked it this past week and with no time I couldn’t even get a round about on my pace. At mile 7 I saw a sign for mile 6. ohh bummer. But half way so that good. wait, is that half way? How far am I running exactly? Ok there’s mile 7 this was right around the time the cramp in my gut started to concern me. I can handle pain, but if it got worse it would start to slow me down. I couldn’t think straight and I could really feel the swim now. My hands started to not work so well. Grabbing water became hard work, my arms felt like lead and at feed zones my response to “what do you need!” had gone from, HEH!! Thanks! umm I’ll have water and ohh are those Oranges, no thanks, water and a gel, thanks guys you rock!!” go Hilleary! To ahh ahh water, go Obama! To here a mile 7, “number 359 what do you need!” …. …. “hey what do you need! …. Are you OK? 3-5-9 are you.. watcoke!... …waaaqalk%$35… it was pretty bad. Then my race brain kicked in again. YO EK, get you s#*% together were barely past half way, your in 6th place! From here to the finish all I could think about is that scene in a football game, when a play goes bad, a fumble happens and some how the 350 lb line backer picks it up and starts running. He probably hasn’t touched a ball in a game in 5 years and looks like a wounded doe on ice trying to run. His teammates run up, and try to block for him. He thunders on, slowing now with every steep. I bet that guy isn’t even thinking End Zone! He’s just thinking, when I get hit by the 5 guys running 10mph faster than me, don’t drop the ball! Don’t drop the ball EK!
Think! This is getting worse and your to far from the line to tough it out… number 359 wh… Pretzels!! I had been taking in my normal electrolyte levels and while it wasn’t hot we are in the dessert and energy usage was high. This combined with drinking water on the run (can’t do the Gatorade) was making my tummy low on salt. Or was it? I had to go for it. 1 mile later I was doing better and just in time as the down hills came. “great job 359 what ... COKE, AND WATER! The racing brain was back. Next set helpers “hey great job loo…! Water! Water!! “ahh we’re just cheering” “ohh sorry” The last 5 k was brutal. Things started popping into my head. Mostly a family friend who lost a long, long battle with cancer a few years back. Don’t know why I thought of her. Maybe she’s in Las Vegas? I was trying to pick up my pace, come on EK top ten top ten can’t get passed again!!,
I put down another gel and finished her off. I could hear the announcer as I came down the chute the crowd was insane, Eric Kenney coming in from Boulder, CO. looking strong!!
When I finished I was a bit over whelmed. Zach was there. And thank good. A volunteer came over, are you OK do you need the medical tent? Ahh… do I? I asked Zach. No, not yet anyway, food, recovery drink. I sat down, shock a few hands, and got a message. Everyone was talking about the water and the wind on the bike path! It was brutal. Everyone that had raced gave you this look. It was this look that said, wow dude, you made it too. Congratulations. You’re a Triathlete.

Early results and stats:
Swim: 29th, 37’ hard as hell.
Bike: 3rd, avg HR 176 (threshold 183-185)
Estimated avg wattage 285-300
Run: ?, ?, ?, harder than hell.
6th over 2rd in age group.

GMSR stage 1

After the normal totally panicked, east coast natural start. The race was on. I avoided some crashes in the neutral zone by locking up the rear wheel a few times. Pretty standard I guess?? I was mid pack on the false flat. Not where I wanted to be but better than last year. The head wind kept the speed to a reasonable pace and I was feeling all right. I was moving up slowly. Ok, no panic this is good. snap. Rear shifter cable snapped right at the lever. I waived for the service car and tried to figure out how to change bikes without loosing the pack totally. Well there was no way. I stopped we got the bike down put some peddles on and I was off on my 6 mile training ride. I have said before how my season has been filled with bad luck. Well here you go.
So how much do you love your sport? How much do I love mine? I have been forced to ask my self this question a few times this year. Well… I‘m starting tomorrow. Pray for me.

Mike Horgan hill climb

The Mike Horgan hill climb is the most dynamic and arguably the hardest of the 3 hill climbs. While not as long or reaching the altitude of Mt Evans it sports long sections of quad busting steeps 15%, and 4.5 miles averaging over 9 etc. 5-7 miles of dirt road. A short fast S-turning decent and a bit of flats before the last kick up to Eldora ski area.

We blasted out of the gates with Tokyo Joes team and Ralf from the Wild Oats team (my team) on the front. We got to the crucial part section of the race in 10 minutes or so. Ridding up hill at 25 MPH makes you feel like a stud I don’t care who you are, it does.
I road well right in 5th or 6th wheel and was feeling good. I went in fount of the surge and turned onto Magnolia rd 3rd wheel or so. Hitting the supper steep start of the next 30’ I shuffled my gears down into my 27 and road steady while 20+ riders passed me. After 3 or 4 minutes 2 groups started to form ahead of me and they stalled. I started to push a bit more. The longer I road the more people I passed and what was to be the second group on the road was in sight and striking distance. I was now riding with one of the Aussie guys. I started to push into the red zone a bit to early before the top and lost the group ahead of us. Onto the dirt road we picked up one rider but couldn’t catch the next group. we simply didn’t have enough guys and I wasn’t willing to ride that hard on this section. I will admit I was scared of the Horgan, well if not scared lets say I had a deep, deep respect. OK onto the paved decent, and to the short stretch of flats that leads to the last few miles up to the finish. As I looked back to judge the condition of my 2 companions I realized that our little party of 3 had turned to 7 or 8. I was worried but then realized how good I felt, and with the final climb less than a mile away I told my self that if they got dropped before I will drop them again. I went to the back as we hit the climb just to see the pace of every one. After a minute or so I moved to the front and accelerated. I told my self I was going to wait for the Aussie rider to make a move but I couldn’t help it. I settled to a rhythm and tock a look. There were a few who follow so I kicked again, this time only my mate from down under was there and looked to be in trouble. I pushed more but couldn’t quite shake him. I should have been either more aggressive there or much less. With 200 to go he jumped me and I didn’t have enough in the legs to respond.
13th on the day. not so bad I guess with 12th and 11th right in sight. I felt great and after as was eating breakfast with the lady at our favorite place in the world I thought… maybe I should have been more aggressive?
Maybe??

Firecracker 50

So off we went through town leading out a parade in Breckenridge, CO it was quite a sight. After a bit of a flurry we settled in. I road 2nd or third wheel for most of the first long, paved and dirt road climb. after some time I had pulled away with another hard tail rider in my class. We hit the single track and I stayed in control of my effort but the going was tough. I was in the lead now with no one in sight. “sweet!” we came up to the second climb, long and crazy steep. 3 mph or so. Lose balance at all go of the single track and you were walking. I did a few times but did my best cyclocross remount and got back to work. 1 sport guy and came up behind me on the long double track decent. There was some traffic on the climb but I was in no real hurry… yet. I just focused, kept my rhythm, and tried to as efficient as possible. 50 miles on fat tires equals 4 ½ to 5 hr’s with no rest. At the top of the second climb I recovered very fast and with my competition no where in sight I could get to work just keeping my bike moving and trying to stay with faster riders on the descents. Bamb flat! Things get bad here, kids stop reading now.
I’ll give you the quick run down. My CO2 didn’t work. After a few minutes my sport class friends started to pass. I chased down mr. yellow jersey on a flat and convinced him to give me his pump. Pumped up tire. 2 minutes later. Flat! With no tube I sat there swearing. Allot! After 10’ or so Chuck my driving companion and 24 hr. of moab mad man stopped asked if I was ok dropped all his flat stuff with me a tock off. His co2 was spent already. I pumped then realized I I had 2 tears in the tire not 1. deflate. Tear my old tube apart with my teeth. Butt the tire pump again then, after 20’ total fu*#&ing around time and I was off again in the fire cracker 50 with a soft tire and no hope of winning. I told my self I could still do it and for a while I believed it. But It tock forever to even catch mr yellow jersey and return the pump. Thanks by the way dude I would still be out there!
I crushed it. For the rest of the race and the last 1hr or 45’ got pretty ugly I had really laid it down after my double flat debacle. And I paid the price. In the end my results got a bit messed up as well with them placing me in the wrong age group but no worries I was out of the top 3 either way and I didn’t bump anybody out of any prizes or fame. In the end I was really upset with yet another “lost opportunity” but I got a great workout had fun and meet some really cool people. if you ever have the chance to do this race do not pass it up. it is one of the best in the country!

Sunshine Canyon Hill climb.

I like the hill climbs, just enough race tactics to make things interesting but nothing to really screw you over. The race goes up hill right away and I was so worried about getting caught back I found my self in the front. Sliding to 3rd wheel or so the pace was nothing crazy but hard enough. Upon the first flat section the I was still there like every one and sitting top 15. the next section was the hardest part of the paved road. I road hard but in control. I was dropped with about 20 guys in the lead group now. As the road eased back I got into a nice group and we chased back on. When the road kicked up again there were 5-10 guys who had gone to deep and blew. I made it back to the lead group pretty quickly. then we hit the dirt. Things really blew up there. I was in around 15th on the road I think, I road a hard yet still in control pace. I was maxed yes but feeling reasonably good. and with the decent number of pro’s in attendance I was pretty happy. As I approached th last km. I started to accelerate. There was a group just up ahead. On dirt there could be a rider 10 feet ahead of you on a 1% grade and you could never make it to his wheel. You go slow! I caught them with 600 meters to go and went straight by. A on Einstein’s riders wheel now I saw Jon Tarkington ahead. I must be riding well! The road flattened out and I was sprinting now to stay with the bagel fueled rider. He pushed again and it was all I could do to keep my pace I had empted the tank. Or filled it with lactic acid? Which ever way you think of it? Probably the latter.
Not sure where I finished. Top 15 I think maybe top 10 but that’s pushing it. Results should be up soon. On the ACA web sight. http://www.americancycling.org/results/Default.htm
More to come hill climbing to come!!

Hugo RR

80 miles of wind and big gears:
The Hugo RR is not a hard course but it’s a bike race and the one thing you can count on in a bike race is that it WILL be hard. If anyone ever tells you a bike race was easy ask them if they won…
The dead on head wind in the first 30 miles made things hard at the front of the pack and very easy in the pack. I attacked first setting off a string of attacks but they were all just testing attacks. You could tell no one really wanted to commit. Until fellow Wild Oats team mat Ralf tock a nice flyer. And then had 4 join him with team director Chad Moore in tow. Neither our team leader for the day but fit and smart racers, we were content. After about 30 miles the road make a shard right hand turn and the easy sitting in was over! 15 miles of hard core Belgian style cross wind racing in sued. Well close anyway. I found myself in the second group but we were not far behind. We started picking up riders getting dropped from the group ahead and after some hard dicing riding in the gutter I found my self in the first group, less the early break. hurting with no teammates and 2 up the road I was trying to recover. A Mr. Jon Tarkinton number 1 on the Best All-round Rider list was with us and I did NOT want him getting to the front. At least not with me feeling the way I did. Jon is a crafty rider to say the least and he can do it all. Crits, long windy RR, hills doesn’t matter. He’s a threat. However me sitting on didn’t make for the best of friends in a group of 6 or 7 and the attacks started. I marked Jon and only Jon. This hurt me more, but I hung tough. Then flat. Yeah believe it r not another flat on the tubulars. I couldn’t believe it! You would think I was aiming for glass and nails! I got a change not the fastest but hey this aint the Tour. A large group pasted me with Max and Mike Sutter in it. I then went about drafting the car at some a really high speed. My monitor kicked out. 53 -11 speed. For maybe 10 minutes I was pinned the whole time. As I kicked out from behind the car I gave my new best friend a nod and realized that the group with me 2 teammates had joined the front group that I was in. our early break was still out. I sat in as Max gave me a few pushes to help me recover but I had already gone to far into the suitcase of courage, as Paul and Phil would say. Another little rise and our group split. Mike and I in the bigger one, A few guys ahead max out the back. With Mike Sutter feeling good I went to work giving everything I had to bring back the guys just ahead of us. After several miles of this we turned again on the last 15 miles and into a cross wind. I lasted a few miles and then I was alone. I could barley keep it in the big ring wit the wind. I did make it though. Not sure on the place. Our 2 early breakers came in 4th and 5th not sure on Sutter yet but top 10 I would imagine. So a good day for the team, tactically a supper race we just need some stronger legs and 1 less flat tires!
Crit tomorrow eve that will conclude the rocky Mt. Omnium!

Deer Trail RR

The course today featured some long flat roads potential for huge cross winds. The winds never really came. But.. a bike race being a bike race it was still hard. The early break went away pretty fast and I tried to bridge, I left it a bit to late and found my self in the middle nowhere… in the race and… in general. Dear Trail is a tiny town. They don’t get much smaller. Any who, I sat up and waited to for the pack after 5 minutes of killing myself. We did the attack each other stop. Then one or two teams would work for a bit. Stop, attack. Repeat. After the first section of the course we barreled back through town and out onto the second sector with was much hillier. I was feeling good as the as we hit the first long drag hard, the pack slowed I kept the pace going shooting of the front. Again I had a nice gap but the little wind that was kicking up made for hard work and the pack was chasseing again. I slotted in and the big boys started to fire. After a few more miles things were getting pretty strung out. I marked the strong guys and then came around a gap and up to a nice move started by Jon Tarkington. The Vitamin Cottage rider has a reputation for being very crafty and yeah, strong too. We were away. 3 of us. And soon 5. This is it I thought. We made another u-turn to begin that last hilly out and back. As we picked up the early break I accelerated over a steep little rise trying to drop the early breakers and take the strong guys to the line. But no one wanted any of that. Now I had 3 V. C. team mates to deal with a 4 or 5 others sitting on. It wasn’t long before the vitamin guys were putting on the pressure and after a few attacks I rolled through the front and Jon was gone. I couldn’t cover and he was away. With the early guys sitting on or hanging on rather after there 70 miles of hard work. With the other vitamin guys sitting on things were getting tricky. I road, hard. 2 or 3 others were taking pulls as well. With Jon dangling out front we were attacked again by the rested legs of his teammate. He made the junction quickly and now we were all looking stupid, or just out manned and out smarted? I can’t figure out which. We barreled into the line and my legs had nothing as the sprint opened up I could barley hold the wheel and ended up 6th.
A solid effort and I was pleased with my result despite the tactics being agents me. Lessons were learned and the last bit of fine tuning for the Gila complete. Next week will be interesting. Stay tuned.

Haystack Time Trial

The TT on this day was a fast course but still a heavy one. A few rolling hills around the half way point and a long barely uphill 3 mill drag to the finish line proved to make this a deceivingly hard course. I road the course a few times the other day once steady and easy and the other with some 5’ intervals. I figured even if the conditions were real good, no wind. It would be hard for me to go faster than 26 MPH average.
Come race day I was excited to test myself. This week I had started to cut back my over all training time and no more tempo, threshold, “hard work” kinda training. It is full gas or recovery ride from here to Gila. After getting the lady out the door for a ride and talking to a client I was now running late. Actually really late. No car drive out there I was going to have to ride. So a hasty warm up/ need to get there fast 40 minute ride. I signed in, pined the number through on the borrowed Zipps and rolled over to the start. An official looked up at me” Eric?” yes sir. I said almost before he finished getting out my name. “1 minute”
Ohh I thought. “No more warm up” I said. “Ahh warm up is over rated” said official number 2.
I pulled off the arm warmers and put my front wheel on the line clipped in and tock a deep breath. “Ok”, I thought, “not much wind maybe a little from the south which will make the last half of the course long, slow and tough. Don’t go out to hard there is that little climb 1 mile in take it easy, especially since my warm had basically one 30 second hard effort. My wheels are on right… right. I looked down at my skewers. “GO!” the official yelled.
I got into my rhythm fast and calmed my self down. First turn and I really cooked it. There was a teammate there helping out with the race and had the cheering going when I was 200m away. I really slammed that corner. Love my Bianchi. Accelerating a bit to hard maybe I was now on the really fast section of the course I worked up to my 53-12 and eased back a bit. It was my biggest gear and you really needed the 11 at least. That is when mister Baker, cyclocross wizard and climbing God ripped by me. At only 30 seconds back I figured he would pass me but not this soon. Its ok I said to my self. Stick to the plan. I turned south got into a nice rhythm, but I could feel my lack of warm up and more so the lack of stretching as my hamstrings started to remind me that I don’t stretch enough as it is. I hit the long roller that marked about half way and I started to push into the red zone. Looking at my speed I was doing pretty well. Baker was far up the road now bit I tried to focus on my race. Another right hand turn and I had 3 miles to go. I pushed into the wind and heavy road. The speed came down but the pain went sky high. I’m not sure on exact wind conditions but I was holding the same speed I did 2 days earlier on the same piece of road. But this effort was much longer. Ok so Baker passed me but he I going pretty good here, I could tell. I pushed more, a hard right then a quick left. Sharp 90 degree turns, I never got out of my aero bars. LOVE THAT BIKE! Out of the saddle now trying to accelerate, Or just trying. My legs started to feel like led, I pushed more. My clock said 28:something. The vision blurred. “holly crap!” I thought. I figured there would be now way I could break 30’ I hammered up the short incline to the finish. 30:50 I was right, but still a solid effort. I looked back and saw a 5280 rider not far behind. Damb! I know they’re a pro team but there juniors too! In the end Baker won. And beat me by around 2:30. pretty serious time gap and the young lad behind me who is that guy I asked the winner afterwards. Ohh that’s “little Phinney, he’s got good jeans.” Jeans? I thought, what the fu*% are you… just then I saw him talking to Davis Phinney. His dad. “ohhhh, yeah good Genes…
I came in mid pack, still trying to figure out who the others are that beat me and what category they are so I can see where I stand. All in all a good effort and afterwards I felt great! Better than before. Then I did the Team TT with mister Baker and 2 of his teammates. I won’t get into the specifics but it was very, very painful. We held of the all pro team the best we could. They beat us by about 30-40 sec. a good effort I thought by us mere mortal non pros.

Fallcon cycling Road Race

Co, springs is a beautiful place it real is. The air force base is propped up on a hill just below the fount range. Pic on my main page.
The race course today featured the 1987 worlds road race course, kinda cool. It was a 12 mile loop which was basically one long climb with a tail wind. It platued out and rolled hard 3-4 times before a fast down hill right into the short, big ring finishing climb. then down more with a heavy cross wind, right hand turn into a 20 mph head wind, for a few miles and back to the long climb.
The field was still pretty stacked despite yesterday fun. The first lap was steady and the climb, I think, tock allot of people by surprise. Even though we had a tail wing the climb dragged on and got steeper towards the top. Through in a little cross wind at the top with some hard small ring rollers and you got a tough climb. the attacks started on the second lap and the climb was all out. 1/3 of the field was dropped if not more lap 3 (out of 5) a slipstream guy and a Einstein’s rider moved away. I look at Stefano (from Toyota United) and shock my head in unison with his. There were 2 slip stream guys in the field still and 6 or so riders form the Einstein’s team. not a good situation for any one else. I tried to slip away on the head wind section once or twice but it was no good. with the bagel boys chasseing everything down I had to the climbing power of the young guy from Toyota United. For the next 2 laps Stefano showed the field why he is a pro. That boy can climb! he shattered the field the first time, I got back on. The next time he tock a few riders with him clear. And the field was blown apart. I was now in the 3rd group? I think? The break which was then caught and dropped. Stefano’s group, another group with some strong men from Einstein’s and my group. 1 and a half laps to go we rolled pretty well. At this point I was really feeling the effort. I hung tough the last time up the climb but right as I was going to put in an big effort over the top I dropped my chain! Douuuh! My big effort was chasseing back to my group of 7 or so. Caught them all but 3 which contained Chuck Coyle. Rider from Successful Living and 12 hour old winner of the 07 Boulder Roubaix.

Boulder Roubaix

Leave it up to me to make an incredibly hard race as hard as possible. 75 miles or so. 8 point something mile loops. With 2-3 miles or so of easy pavement. The rest… dirt roads, short sharp climbs, downhill 90 degree turns, false flats and as always… the pro’s.
After a few laps of racing things got gripy. I was closing gaps and after 3-5 minutes of all out riding it settled down a bit but 1/3 of the field was dropped. As we approached the same spot 1 lap later I knew “it” was going to happen now, “the” break of the day going to go. sure enough I started to dig in riding the 25-30 mph pace on the bumpy, packed dirt road. Then, a gap that was getting hard to close down. My self and Allen Krugoff crushed it but found our self’s in no-mans land fast and loosing ground to the leaders. My teammate Max had been in an early break and was hanging on but must have been really suffering now.
After a few minutes of chase our “main group settled down and then really slowed down. I accelerated a few times only to be chased. Finally they let me go. and I was off. With 30+ miles to go I wasn’t sure what I was doing but I knew I didn’t want to ride with a group that had given up. 10-12 miles alone was starting wear on me but I was fueling well and had already gotten a few from Lindsay. The best feed girl in the biz!! Then a saw the chasers I had a big gap now on the pack but being alone of this course it could get closed by an angry pack fast. It was only 3 riders. When they caught me the change of pace hurt but they let me sit on for 2 minutes until we reached the pavement. There I started pulling through and we made time on our chasers if there were any.
Towards the finish I was basically just putting on a show. A show of how to pedal with out actually pushing on the pedals! I was done. Allen accelerated on the final climb with 1 km to go almost making it but no go. Allen tock one other rider from out group to the line while myself and the other road a slow but all out effort to the line.
In the end 14th place was mine. I was pleased with the number of pro’s and not making “the move” I felt that it was a good effort. Now I had to get ready for the hills of CO springs tomorrow…

Koppenburg RR

I have to say that the racing in the Boulder area is hard core! Pro riders aside. The first 3 RR of the yr have lots of dirt roads. And the wind is enough make a Belgian pay attention.
OK the Koppenburg RR. A short 45 miles or so but serious pain was laid down by the 15 or so pros that showed up. I got to the line late and was in back. The guy in front of me stumbled on his clip in and bamb. The field is single file on the dirt in a 20 MPH cross, head wind. The first 5+ miles was like that. Up the climb the first time was rough. I was caught back and then chasing. Back on the field slowed briefly, a minute, then back to the dirt for round two. The cross wind at the top of the climb was fierce. Single file in the dirt, back wheel fish tailing in the soft stuff at the side of the road. This time I was back again, we were dropped and chased back on. It tock a bit longer this time. See a patterned forming…
Lap 3 was the same.
4th time around, I think, was a bit slower and I recovered all right. Better than I thought I would for being in and out of sickness this week. That time up the climb was the best I had felt. Ohh yeah the climb is only 200 meters long but dirt, rutted and 17%. I was middle of the pack. Over the top and again single file. In the gutter and this time the pace was wicked! It didn’t let up, I started to crack and drift back. One guy came by then nothing. “that’s it I thought!” what the?!? I turned around almost pissed off. Everyone else was gone. I settled into a nice rhythm, well maybe nice isn’t the word, but you know what I mean. I actually felt Ok I was just so out of position and couldn’t get into position and I paid, dearly. I kept riding and after 5 miles or so 5 riders came up behind me. In it were 2 cat 1’s who are rather crafty and strong. Ok I thought just keep riding. I saw more and more riders riding home, and at the side of the road? Ok maybe I’m not doing that bad? Then we caught the main group. “wow” this is interesting” I thought. We went real slow but the climb was coming. move to the front I thought. Bamb! Crash. Moniger and a Kodak gallery guy went down. I did the tripod hop as gracefully as possible as I ran into the guy in front of me. Still up right I clipped in and… nothing left, just nothing in the legs. 25 miles of all out riding on dirt roads with more wind that Florida in hurricane season was to much. I came of the back fast. Upon finding the top of the climb I found a new set of riders to share the wind with and this time the 3 groups in front of us did seem to add up to much. So I road. Just trading pulls. We were going pretty slow but I couldn’t go any faster alone. Last lap, I was thinking I would get dropped on the hill but didn’t at the top me and Joe T. from Vitamin cottage and I were left from our group. We rode steady and strong to the finish and hit the line in 30 and 31st place. We didn’t really sprint but rather just tried to look strong for the crowd. I slipped in behind him figuring I wouldn’t challenge him after the push he gave me when my front derailleur acted up. And I probably couldn’t have taken him any way.
So… there you go. I have been a bit sick this week, yes. Just some congestion and soar throat so I was unsure how I would go. I felt better than I thought I would but tactically, my positioning was the worst it has ever been in a race. so… ride and learn, ride and learn.

Cat Eye RR

Rain. 40 degrees and more rain. only 54 miles but throw some wind in there and 2 dirt road sections and you have the makings of a real rough day, or a great one?

in the first 10 miles I was feeling a bit panicy but i settled down. the course was harder than i thought. ny quads felt like some one else's. they felt like I had been sitting in the car for 2 hours... like I had. laphing my ass off with Kelly as we got ready and tried to stay warm.

I attacked a few times and then one stuck. 12 miles into the race I was off alone. with Kelly now sitting in follow moves like he can do so well I thought this was good. I still didn't feel good and there were some big guns in the pack but I'm not gona stop now. Onto the dirt road and I saw a group coming up. I crushed it trying to get over the hill and onto the pavement before the caught me. They got me before the pavement but I hung on. But another hill and acceleration and I was gaped and the pack was now half the size. I was gone... see yah. race over. pretty sad really but you know it just wasn't gona happen for me today. so what ever. Learn. that’s all I can do now. and I have. so tomorrow will be a big training day.

after I pulled out I was consoled by the sight of a few cat 1's dropped before me. Ok that’s not so bad I guess and the Pack was half the size. and my training times and wattage don't lie. good things are coming. I know it!