Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Air force academy race weekend.

Time Trial

The sat TT I was rushed. A 90’ drive down. Trying to find the start etc left me with a 35’ warm up or so. While I didn’t feel horrible I didn’t feel totally opened up. I gave it my best. Being conservative in the begging of the course on the steep rollers. Resting a bit on the long down hill and finding the best rhythm possible on the flat to rolling second half. 13th place. In a TT that 1% can mean a lot. What would have meant for me? 30 seconds, 1 minute or more? No clue…

Road Race:
We went off like dogs chasseing a rabbit from the gun. No idea why? This out of the gate VO2 effort is never good for me. As we flew down the long hill and turned into the cross wind there was a huge crash. Across the road crash. I threaded my way through and got to work in a chase group. No panic we will catch them. As we hit the climb we caught on and I went to the front. Not wanting to be caught behind someone not ready to race today. However, I ended up to far it front. Common error for myself. I was soon following attacks and riding second wheel burning matches faster that someone like me should when there are 10+ pro’s. Second lap was better. Again they killed it in the cross wind. I felt good and happy about half the field being dropped in this section. Lap 3, again single file in the gutter and I felt fine, then the gaps opened up big time, I was to far back and chasseing. A full lap chasseing with a small group started to wear on me. The 4th time up the climb we caught the group again! They were with out a small lead group but we were back. Under pressure my self and my fellow chasers were dropped later on the climb and again I was in chase mode. I tried to pace myself on the last loop but my legs were totally shot. It was not confidence building to feel this way. But I have to chalk it up to early match burning. Not good for anyone and for me early race efforts end up coasting me big 99% of the time. 26th place or some crap. I was really frustrated afterwards. With the race, the crash and mostly myself. The day was one to be defensive. And I’m just not a defensive guy.

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