Elkhorn Classic-Stage 1

Yes, it's official, I'm a pretty sucky road racer.  No, this isn't me being dramatic or feeling sorry for myself, when compared to the guys I'm racing against I am definitely sub-par.  True, I made it more than halfway through the race without getting dropped but as soon as the road goes up I go out the back.  Alright, in all fairness we were climbing steady up Catherine (Hill, Mountain?) and then Gabe from Yahoo went to the front...

I go off the back of yet another race.  I'm getting sick of this.  I joined up with a group of 3 on the descent and we made an honest effort to make contact but it wasn't to be.  I came off the back of that group and was faced with a pleasant ride through gorgeous Eastern Oregon.

Ok, no more whining.  I'm here, this is an awesome race and I'm going to enjoy my time.

In all honesty I'm just biding my time until this:

Mt Hood Cycling Classic: Stage 4; Queen Stage

Well shit.  That was hard.  It all started by covering the first 5 miles in 8:08 and the next 5 in 7:52 in a balls-out descent from the start line.  Yes, a 38mph average for the first 10 miles.  Even as we were descending it I knew I'd hate climbing back up it, but I knew I had to finish this stage.  I'd made it this far and even if I had to crawl to the top of that hill I was going to finish.  Sadly, I didn't know how close to the truth this would be.

Mount Hood Cycling Classic: Crit

As previously noted, I was fairly anxious heading into this race.  Not only for the sheer speed of the race but also the fear of doing something stupid and causing a crash.  Yeah, it sucks to crash but I realize that it happens.  What's even worse than crashing (in my mind) is crashing someone else.  Call it chivalry, call it stupidity, call it what you will but I'd hate to crash another person.

Ok, crit time.  After some aggressive maneuvering I was able to get a start position about mid-pack.  Not the best but still a lot better than I usually fare.  The race went off and it was just like any other crit, full gas, except these guys have a lot higher top end.  After about a lap I almost started having fun, then I slowly lost about 2 wheels/lap.  I knew I had a cushion as my goal was simply to finish 20 minutes but I didn't want to spend any more time off the back then I had to.  Wheels kept slowly slipping by me but I was holding my own.  When I did come off the back I made the cut and stayed upright.  Mission complete.

Stage result: 124th; 3:08 back
GC after 124th; 40:36 back

Hey, at least I've got consistency going for me.  But I get to start the stage today and that's all I care about.  I'm going to finish this race and I will be going one with one big learning experience.

Mt Hood Cycling Classic: Stage 2 TT

Photo courtesy of Pat Malach
at Oregon Cycling Action

Ok, so the above photo is from the prologue but whatever, I'm on the TT bike, same thing.

Mt Hood Cycling Classic: Stage 1 RR

Wow.  136 racers, 84 miles, almost 8000ft of climbing and a 32mph 'neutral' rollout.  Talk about baptism by fire.  I always knew this day would be harder than I anticipated but I never really expected it to be that hard.

Here's how it all went down. Mile 8, first climb of the day, we go tearing up it like we were running from the rapture.  I'm already cross eyed and am slowly losing wheels and it's 8 miles into the race!  I hate to say it but I came unglued.  Part of it was poor positioning and part of it was too much testosterone on the front of the race.   Still, I came off and spent the next 76 miles chasing.  Great, it's San Dimas all over again.  Then again, the time cut was a little less merciless this time around so I didn't have to worry about making the 105% of the winner's time, instead just a cushy 130%.  That I can do.  I don't really know what else to say so I'll just let the numbers do the talking.  Normally I wouldn't share power data but at this point there's not a whole lot for anyone to gain from it.
Final results on the day:  finished in 4:01:58, good for 124th on the day, moving me into 128th overall.  Like I said, quite the change of scenery.


Oh, the one condolence for the day came upon my arrival back at the team car where the entire Peanut Butter & Co. Cycling Team was lined up having a team meeting right behind us.  Hey, it's life's little victories, right?

Oh, one last note:  today's course was awesome!  Besides the fact it was ball-bustingly hard all the climbs were longs, steady and hard, the descents were fast, twisty and never ending and the combination of sunshine and Gorge scenery was absolutely breathtaking today.  Overall, not a whole lot to complain about today.

Survived another day, TT tomorrow morning and crit in the evening.

Mount Hood Cycling Classic: Prologue

Dictionary.com defines a prologue as "a preliminary discourse; a preface or introductory part of a discourse..."  Instead, I define it as "as exercise, equivalent to repeatedly striking oneself in the head with a hammer, in which one wastes an entire day to go race for less than 10 minutes for the simple purpose of establishing who sucks more."

Mt. Tabor. Cat 2.

Sweet baby Jesus that hurt.  The picture above describes about where I spent just about the entire race.

Cat 2 is a whole different ball game.  Just like my just from B to A last cross season I was blown away by the speed and smoothness of the riders there.  The Pro/1/2 road field is no different, I don't know why I expected it to be.