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

Monday, March 16, 2009

And so that happened....

At the beginning of last week, the forecast was 70 and sunny. On Wednesday it was 60 and a little rainy. On Friday it was 40 and miserably wet. The Seige of Rome was EPIC, but not in a good way. Had the weather been good, the event would have been perfect but the weather was not good and so almost everything else stunk just a little bit too. Still, the Georgia Cup put on a mostly excellent event in really difficult conditions.

Here's a bit of a play-by-play.

Saturday Morning: We wake up to rain. Lot's of it. And cold. We're staying with teammate Robert who's recovering from a bad crash last week. He's slept poorly and we're trying to get him moving. He's hurting really bad but he decides to man up and try to ride anyways. The rain makes everything hard. We get to the staging area for the TT and it's really dark. I get my number and do the chip thing and set up and then realize I've left my shoes and helmet back at the hotel. A crazy trip back to get them leaves me with a 15 minute warm-up window. I just get a little hot and it's time to go. I get to the start house and the adrenaline is just wearing off. I never really get going but I'm solid. I struggle again with focus but by the end I feel pretty good. Robert gets back from his run and he's hypothermic. He can't stop shivering and there's something wrong with his right arm. We throw everything in the truck and head back to the hotel to get him in the shower. He's had a bad morning. He's slept wrong, pinched a nerve and has no strength in his right arm because of it. Once he gets warmed up we head to IHOP where we find someone who has a results sheet. I've won but with a bad time. I should have been able to do the 6.5 mile course 45 seconds faster but all that matters is that I beat the second placed guy. After a big brunch we head back to the hotel for some rest. We need it.

Saturday afternoon: A technical crit in the rain. Six turns with two narrow stretches; my favorite type of race. I love this kind of racing only slightly more than the kind of racing that involves riding your bike into a brick wall while wearing a helmet. But I've got to do it to stay in the overall so I suit up. Drew's come up for this race and he's looking for a win. Actually he looks like some sort of Terminator in cycling lycra. I'm pretty sure he's ready to crush this thing with his bare hands. Robert's out with the nerve thing. The race turns out to be a crashfest with at least four crashes in the 37 minutes of the race. One guy snaps his collarbone and his bike frame on a tree. I manage to stay out of trouble though I get gapped at one point. Drew is the awesome teammate and comes back to pull me back up to the field. I lead him out for a MAR sprint as a way of saying thanks. He finishes just off the podium for fourth and I manage a tenth place finish. He promises to "be back".

Sunday morning: More rain but warmer. 52 mile road race with a BIG climb that will decide things. Robert's back for an attempt and so is Drew. I'm hoping to hang on to the front group on the climb and see what I've got after that. It almost all comes apart when my rear tube explodes 5 miles into the race. Robert gives me his rear wheel and Drew pulls me back into the group. My race would be finished if not for my teammates. On the climb I can't quite hold the front group and they're gone down the descent before I can catch them. I decide to ride hard anyway to try and pay Drew and Robert back for their sacrifices. Drew's with the front group so I think we've still got a chance for a decent finish. I end up hooking up with a couple of other guys and we start time trialing as a way of catching any stragglers. A mile from the climb we're only a minute behind the lead group. It's sort of stunning to think we pulled back a much larger group. I ride my own pace up the climb on the second time up and end up tenth overall two places behind Drew.

Overall: With the win in the TT and the two tenth place finishes I managed to place third in the overall which is my best stage race placing since Union City last year. What's shocking is that I did it in an Omnium where the crit usually kills me because I don't win any points usually in that event. It's a good result for early in the season.

The Bottom Line: Two things can be taken from this weekend. One is that my form is better than it was at this time last year. The other, and much more important one, is that I have awesome teammates. Without Robert and Drew there is no chance I would have achieved this placing so the Truth this week is that the achievement is a team one, not an individual one. The result belongs as much to those guys as it does to me. Drew even managed to place fourth in the overall. I think if he had come up for the TT he would have been third and I would have finished fourth.

Next week is Union City and an appointment with the TT course that nearly killed me last year. I'm hoping to crush the thing this year with a powerful ride. After that, I'll see about working for my team to get them a podium.

Thanks for Reading.

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