Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

This last weekend was race weekend for me. Saturday was the Georgia State Time Trial Championship with a crit later in the day. Sunday was the Macon Madness MTB race at what we locals affectionately call the Pig Trial.

The first race was good. Even though the organizers weren't so organized I managed, through a modicum of good planning, to get my number and a bit of a warm-up. Just like in South Carolina, I got a solid start and turned up the power over the next 21 miles. I really felt good on the way back and poured the power on for a 50:27 finish. Had I raced Cat IV or Cat III I'd be the state champ right now. However, since I'm racing Masters 35+, I have the opportunity to race against former pros. Still, though, I managed to win the bronze medal which was good.

The crit later in the day was bad. I got dropped on lap 2 and was never in contention. The only silver lining was that I cornered well at speed both in and out of the pack. I have to work on my ability to sprint out of the corners or I'll never be competitive in crits.

The ugly bit was the MTB race. I won this race in the beginners class last year though the course was a different one. I wanted a good race since it's the home team race. I got my usual poor start but I was cool with that. I now expect it and plan my strategy with it in mind. Once we cleared a little bit of technical stuff I started to move up pretty rapidly and passed most of the field in the first lap. My buddy Todd Park hooked up with me and things looked good at the end of the first lap (out of three). I got tot he power portion of the second lap and I started passing guys in the second group. I got up to the guys that were driving the pace and decided to make my move. I felt strong and knew that I could drop them and get a gap to bridge to the leaders. As I was powering up though, my rear wheel slid out and I crashed really hard. I slid about 30 feet before coming to a stop and was nearly run over about 4 times. After that, the race was a matter of just trying to hold something together. I finished 16th out of about 35 guys which was disappointing. I think the hardest thing isn't the finish as much as the fact as I was in contention for a high place before the crash. Several times this year I've been up in the running for a top ten when something dumb like that happens. I either have to learn to ride the darn bike or catch a little luck. What really galls me is that yesterday I went out and rode at Dauset and I tore it up. I mean I just absolutely killed it. I spent 70% of the time in the big ring, I was on the edge of the envelope and managed not to crash and I never felt really tired on the climbs. The only thing that was tough was I didn't always feel like I was in control on the descents. It was the same way I felt when I was heading towards a top five at Helen before my spokes got taken out.

Oh well, that's racing I guess. I know that the power's there so I just have to work on skills and catch some luck. I don't have to do any more time trial training this year so those rides are going to be shifted to the dirt so I can practice a whole bunch more. Hopefully, I'll see some improvement and my race placings will improve.

Thanks for reading.

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