Stage 2: TT. I was actually really looking forward to going out and giving it everything I had in the TT. I knew I didn't have a prayer of contending but I really wanted to see just what I could do. Then the team needed me. I wound up lending out a bunch of equipment to our faster guys and playing mechanic/soungier right before my start. I wound up soft pedaling the TT and making fun of everyone that went past me. In all honesty, I felt like death. My nose, sinuses, throat and lungs were all full of crap and my stomach felt like an ADD kid on a teeter-totter; not settled. I immediately got done and called a teammate who'd dropped out the day before and was prepared to beg for a ride home. No answer.
With no immediate ride back to Portland I knew it was probably best if I just hung out and at least started the crit so if by some miracle I was feeling better by Sunday then I'd at least be able to start.
Pre-Stage 3: I can't really talk about the crit without describing all the chaos that ensued immediately beforehand. It all started when teammate Andrew Boone decided to bring up that his rear shifting was a little off. I took a look at it and recommended that we just lube the cable and hope because we were within an hour of our start time. Nope, can't lube the cable, he had a full liner installed from shifter to derailleur. Ok, easy enough, we just replace the cable. Here's where things started going downhill. This is Baker City, not Portland, there aren't bike shops open all day and night. We scrounge around and eventually just pull a cable off my TT bike; not like it was doing me any good anyway. Then the liner pinches, then it does it again. We are now stuck 20 minutes before the start of a crit with a bike stuck in the 11T cog. Oh, and he's pretty much our GC guy. After 15 minutes of panic, 2 trips across town and begging for a cable and housing from every cycling team in downtown Baker we come up with a solution: borrow a size-too-small bike and race on that. Boone borrowed a teammate's Cervelo S1 and rolled to the start line. Boone and I had no warmup but damn our heart rate was up.
Stage 3: we flat out crushed the crit. Eli got into a move nice and early which gave us a nice 20 minute break where we just set tempo. As soon as that came back we attacked. Again, and again and again. We always had at least one guy up the road and as soon as anything came back we were right there firing off the front again. I had a great race, didn't really do anything but somehow wound up on the front for a lap driving the pace. My work being done I settled into my comfort zone, 5 from the back and just rode. Boone finished solo after dropping his break-mate and grabbed 5 seconds over the field. This alone did wonders for the team's (and my) morale. We all rolled back to the high school (where we were camping) like we were walking on sunshin. On top of this, I felt amazing. My legs were there and I actually felt like a somewhat fit human being, not something that was dying in a gutter.
Stage 4: for those of you who are not familiar Elkhorn's Queen stage is a killer. Sadly, it's just a more tame version of Mt Hood's Queen Stage. 100 miles with intermediate climbs, all leading up to an 8 mile ball-breaker of a climb. My plan: sit in, take it easy, cover moves for the team (none of which will stick) and make it over the third climb with the field, from there, we'd see how I was feeling. Reality: total opposite.
Here's how it all happened: on our neutral roll out on the way out of town Eli rolls up to me and says "we need you on the front this first part." Of course, I go to the front and think "meh, this can't be too bad, no one's dumb enough to go before the first climb, I'll have an easy warmup." WRONG. 3 miles in Gabe from Yahoo attacks. I'm there, it's my job to follow his wheel. Life Cycle and Hagens come with. That's the day's break. I really, really didn't want to be there but I knew it was necessary. All I wanted to do was sit in the field for an easy ride over the first few climbs but it wasn't to be. We immediately got to work and quickly built our lead. I knew from 7 miles in that I wouldn't have a lot of gas to give to this break but had to hang in as long as I could. I lasted for 50 miles of headwinds. If you've ridden with me you know I hate headwinds. I came off right before the third climb. We made a left hander and when I looked up there were 4 bike lengths between Hagens and me. He looked back and knew I was done. I blinked and they were 15 seconds up the road. I sat up attempting to recover so I could rejoin the peleton when they passed and suddenly they were right there, not a minute after I came off. At our last time check we had an almost 5 minute lead, where'd that go? I went straight through the peleton like a cement brick through water and was promptly spit out the back. Hey, at least it was a balanced race, 50 miles off the front, 50 off the back. 10 miles later all the caffeine hit. I started singing, making sheep noises at the cows and having conversations with ground squirrels. Yep, I probably looked like one of those crazy people that's been lost in the woods for the past 2 years.
Regardless, I finished. I soft pedaled (with the tail wind I may add) to the base of Dooley with the intention of giving it one last go in an attempt to reconcile myself. I put in a solid climb until about 3.5k to go. At that point I ran out of gas, no warning, just empty. I spent those last few kilometers watching myself get passed by everyone I'd just shelled as I clumsily threw my body from one pedal to the other.
If you've managed to read this entire thing and are still bored check out Oregon Cycling Action's recap of the stage. I get a nice little mention.
All in all it was a good weekend. If you look at the results you can see I did terribly but with sickness and not great fitness at the moment I've accepted that. The thing I'm most impressed with this past weekend was the team work; from scrambling around Baker City in search of cables and housing to getting in a break knowing it would make the team's life easier. Overall, I'm happy with the weekend.
There, no longer cranky. I still want cx season to be here...
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