===================================
University RR
26 August 2007
Length: 20 laps
Place: 7th (Dominic and Christine finishing)
Teammates: Dominic Giampaolo, Greg Davis, and Christine Thorburn
First off, I made a poor decision letting my temper
get the best of me and for setting a poor example by
making a scene immediately after yesterday's race. I
broke the cardinal rule of "What happens in the race,
should stay in the race." Bike racing is half
psychological warfare, so if I let a rider get under
my skin, it's my own problem. It's better to let your
legs do the talking instead of your mouth (I used the
latter. A great example of what you should do is to
simply look at Karen Brems, who won her race against 3 or 4
TIBCO riders without any teammates. I'm fairly
certain she wasn't the strongest rider in her field
since there is no hiding at University. I never would
have expected her to pull out the win. But by never
showing a sign of weakness, she somehow pulled it off
yesterday. She has achieved "God-like" status in my
book.
Back to the report:
We had as good of a field as I've ever seen at this
race with solid riders from a variety of domestic pro
teams including Jittery Joe's (Neil Shirley, eventual
winner)Slipstream's(Webcor alum Lucas "bay face" Euser
and Steven Cozza-first race back- since his bad
accident), Navigators' (David Rodriguez), Rock
Racing's (Kevin Klein and Adam Switters), VMG's - Eric
Riggs, , and mtn bike hammer, Barry Wicks. Of course
we had the area's top local riders who like hilly
courses, including one up and comer who doesn't yet
know what he's good at(everything): "the real deal"
Jared of Metromint, who had just won San Ardo the day
before.
A former Webcor alum, Ben Haldeman, set the tone by
attacking right out of the gates putting everyone into
the pain cave. This was highly unnecessary as the
majority of Pro 1/2 riders do not warm up for races,
and seeing this rider on the side, back in street
clothes within the hour meant he clearly attacked for
effect.
The ensuing laps, were punctuated by a multitude of
attacks, with no one, unfortunately, able to stay off,
thus making the pace rather uncomfortable. Both
Christine and Dominic did a great job of maintaining
position near the front. However, the high pace took
its toll and our group whittled down to about a dozen.
On lap 10 or so, we voluntarily neutralized ourselves
when we caught the Master's 4/5 field finishing their
race.
On the following lap, after I then rolled off in my
'not particularly safe' aero tuck and was able to hold
a gap until the top of the climb. Unfortunately the
entire field bridged up rather than the couple of
riders I was hoping for. The counter to my move became
the break of the day as Steven Cozza of Slipstream
attacked from the base of the climb, with about 5 to
go. A flying Neil Shirley and Jesse Moore bridged
across shortly after, and it seemed clear that this
break had teeth.
By this time, we were down to about 7 or 8 riders left
in the chase group incl, and with no organized chase,
the gap grew. Wicks, Jared, BP, and Jonathan Eropkins
took some nice pulls, but the gap wasn't coming down
quickly.
With three to go, we catch Steven and Jesse but not
Neil, who had set off alone, and with two to go, Jared
rolls off on the descent, and nobody responded. He
put his head down and that was that. We're now racing
for
3rd. More attacks ensue on the last lap, and I end up
in the 2nd chase group behind Lucas, Adam Switters,
Jesse, with Neil and Jared up the road.
It's myself, Tyler (from Davis Bike Club), and Kevin
Klein arrears. With some hard efforts by Tyler and
myself, we get within 10 bike lengths of the chase
group at the bottom corner. We continue to push it
towards the line as Kevin jumps around us(he has
teammate Adam just ahead), latching onto the chase
group as they start their sprint. I roll
in 7th. Both Dominic (10 - 15ish?) and Christine
finished strongly as well.
Not a bad result. It would have been nice to have
Greg racing with us, but I found out later that he had
a major mechanical before the start of the race.
-Ted
26 August 2007
Length: 20 laps
Place: 7th (Dominic and Christine finishing)
Teammates: Dominic Giampaolo, Greg Davis, and Christine Thorburn
First off, I made a poor decision letting my temper
get the best of me and for setting a poor example by
making a scene immediately after yesterday's race. I
broke the cardinal rule of "What happens in the race,
should stay in the race." Bike racing is half
psychological warfare, so if I let a rider get under
my skin, it's my own problem. It's better to let your
legs do the talking instead of your mouth (I used the
latter. A great example of what you should do is to
simply look at Karen Brems, who won her race against 3 or 4
TIBCO riders without any teammates. I'm fairly
certain she wasn't the strongest rider in her field
since there is no hiding at University. I never would
have expected her to pull out the win. But by never
showing a sign of weakness, she somehow pulled it off
yesterday. She has achieved "God-like" status in my
book.
Back to the report:
We had as good of a field as I've ever seen at this
race with solid riders from a variety of domestic pro
teams including Jittery Joe's (Neil Shirley, eventual
winner)Slipstream's(Webcor alum Lucas "bay face" Euser
and Steven Cozza-first race back- since his bad
accident), Navigators' (David Rodriguez), Rock
Racing's (Kevin Klein and Adam Switters), VMG's - Eric
Riggs, , and mtn bike hammer, Barry Wicks. Of course
we had the area's top local riders who like hilly
courses, including one up and comer who doesn't yet
know what he's good at(everything): "the real deal"
Jared of Metromint, who had just won San Ardo the day
before.
A former Webcor alum, Ben Haldeman, set the tone by
attacking right out of the gates putting everyone into
the pain cave. This was highly unnecessary as the
majority of Pro 1/2 riders do not warm up for races,
and seeing this rider on the side, back in street
clothes within the hour meant he clearly attacked for
effect.
The ensuing laps, were punctuated by a multitude of
attacks, with no one, unfortunately, able to stay off,
thus making the pace rather uncomfortable. Both
Christine and Dominic did a great job of maintaining
position near the front. However, the high pace took
its toll and our group whittled down to about a dozen.
On lap 10 or so, we voluntarily neutralized ourselves
when we caught the Master's 4/5 field finishing their
race.
On the following lap, after I then rolled off in my
'not particularly safe' aero tuck and was able to hold
a gap until the top of the climb. Unfortunately the
entire field bridged up rather than the couple of
riders I was hoping for. The counter to my move became
the break of the day as Steven Cozza of Slipstream
attacked from the base of the climb, with about 5 to
go. A flying Neil Shirley and Jesse Moore bridged
across shortly after, and it seemed clear that this
break had teeth.
By this time, we were down to about 7 or 8 riders left
in the chase group incl, and with no organized chase,
the gap grew. Wicks, Jared, BP, and Jonathan Eropkins
took some nice pulls, but the gap wasn't coming down
quickly.
With three to go, we catch Steven and Jesse but not
Neil, who had set off alone, and with two to go, Jared
rolls off on the descent, and nobody responded. He
put his head down and that was that. We're now racing
for
3rd. More attacks ensue on the last lap, and I end up
in the 2nd chase group behind Lucas, Adam Switters,
Jesse, with Neil and Jared up the road.
It's myself, Tyler (from Davis Bike Club), and Kevin
Klein arrears. With some hard efforts by Tyler and
myself, we get within 10 bike lengths of the chase
group at the bottom corner. We continue to push it
towards the line as Kevin jumps around us(he has
teammate Adam just ahead), latching onto the chase
group as they start their sprint. I roll
in 7th. Both Dominic (10 - 15ish?) and Christine
finished strongly as well.
Not a bad result. It would have been nice to have
Greg racing with us, but I found out later that he had
a major mechanical before the start of the race.
-Ted
1 comment:
Gostei muito desse post e seu blog é muito interessante, vou passar por aqui sempre =) Depois dá uma passada lá no meu site, que é sobre o CresceNet, espero que goste. O endereço dele é http://www.provedorcrescenet.com . Um abraço.
Post a Comment