Friday, Day 3 Cascade Cycling Classic

Today was a beautiful stage. We started in Bend and immediately began a slight ascent to the top of Mount Bachelor, which was not so slight for very long. Fortunately, the group managed to stay together, and the gods were kind enough to leave the four hour period of our race relatively crosswind-free. The remainder of the day was pretty much high speed cruising behind the United Team train. The strength of those riders continues to astound me each and every day. You get a taste of the kind of effort they do for hours on end when you pull out of the protection of the peloton to move up (this is easily the most physically and mentally taxing part of racing when you're on the flats) and are greeted with the flow of air that those guys push through all day long.

Once we had gone out and done a big loop, we turned back to tackle the climb for a second time, but from the opposite direction, ascending the way we had descended at first. The pack split up earlier than i had been anticipated, and unfortunately I didn't make the first group over one of the stinging first little peak before the final climb. I chased them for a few miles with about ten other guys but we couldn't catch them before it slanted up again. We arrived at the bottom with 10 k to go trailing the first 50 or so racers by about 30 seconds. From there is was large long steep stair steps up to the finish. The group I was with stayed together for the most part until the finish, about half of us pulling, the rest sitting in on the flat sections. One of the guys just pulled at the front an incredible amount and so when we got within about 1/2 kilometers to go, the guys who had been sitting had been able to recover a bit on the flat, and one of the riders from Cal Giant attacked off the front. He was an asshole. Why, you ask?

Well this is a perfect space for me to interject a little lesson about rider etiquette. Basically, the application of his asshole title is only applicable in this case because we were easily outside of fifty riders from the front going into the finish. If you have a group of maybe 20 guys, who are chasing a front group into the finish, and half are pulling (working together to reduce the time gap by rotating into the wind), then the other half we assume are not pulling because a) they are too tired and would be dropped from th protective group if they tried to pull, or, b) they are too lazy/ don't care about making up any time/ just want to get the pain overwith. In both cases, the non-pulling riders are not to blame. Sidenote: if this 20 mangroup had been the lead group things would be different because sitting riders (who refuse to pull) pose a threat because if they hang on to the end, they may be fresher than everyone else, enabling them to sprint around the riders who have been working at the front of the group once they near the finish. But that all has to do with the fact that the top 30 places or so actually matter. It's worth a sprint at the end to be able to say I got 16th place, not 26th. Back to OUR case at hand, however. I have employed a rather vulgar, harsh nomenclature to the Cal Giant rider because he took advantage of a consolidated effort to limit the group's time losses as a whole- he skiped out on pulling at the front the whole way up, only to attack at the last minute, crossing the line ahead of all of those who had just suffered up the climb to bring everyone in as fast as possible. And for what? 54th place instead of 64th? Who cares?

That's about enough writing for me today. I know it's not very thorough, but for more detailed info about the courses we have been riding, go to www.cascade-classic.org. A quick update: My knee is started to hurt a little, but in a different way. I think it is a side effecto fo the cortisone. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. I got an IV after the race today from the medic's tent. just for kicks (for free!). Almost like being in Spain again...now father is cooking up a gourmet batch of spagetti for Will and I and I am just sitting here tired out. The Dubois parents are coming down tonite to see the TT tomorrow, which will be fun. I always like all the fuss and perfection of a time trial. I want to break top 50, though that will be hard for me because it is short (7 miles) and not very steep at any point. I have my fingers crossed.

Wednesday, Day 1 Cascade Cycling Classic

Day 1 Cascade Cycling Classic: Bend, Oregon

Today was not good. Everything went really well in terms of registration and finding a hotel and getting to the race on time, but from there is was all downhill for me- well, no, actually there was a lot of uphill. Lets start out with the stiff intimidation factor. Will Sladek, a fellow collegiate racer from Cal Tech, my dedicated sponsor/fan/support crew/father all-in-one, and I, trembling legs and all, were greeted this morning at the start line by an impressive line up of national caliber pros in all their shining armor and glory, along with their 7 or 8 serfs waiting eagerly to do battle for their great Lords. A listing: Healthnet, Navigators, Target Training, Broadmark, Toyota United, Kodak-Sierra Nevada, Recycled Cycles, BMC, Cal Giant, South Australia.com, Jittery Joes, Webcor, Vitamin Cottage, SuccessfulLiving.com, Colavita-Sutter Home, and last but not least, the one man wonder Aaron Olson of Saunier Duval who just got done racing in the Giro d’Italia, no big deal.

Today’s stage was 92 miles with a five mile climb at about 4-5% grade at 55 miles and then a nasty steep 1 mile climb at the finish at about 10%. The real destruction came within the mileage of 60-85 miles because a tart crosswind kicked up and turned what had earlier been a nice cozy little protective mass of riders into a single file line stretched about a mile long. The field shattered into about 3 groups, and guess what, Sammy skinnybones got shot out the back like holding a wheel was going out of style. I can’t imagine a more devastating way to lose time in a bike race. You’re following a wheel in front of you and a gap starts to slowly open and you stand up and start to sprint just to hold on because you thought you were already going as hard as you could go, and instead of the gap closing it just slowly grows until it jumps exponentially because you’re no longer in what little slipstream you had enjoyed a few seconds before. So you’re going as hard as you can, and you just watch the pathetic little pack of dropped riders pull away from you like they’re still treading water while you thrash around, slowly sinking to the bottom, and you’re crying and thinking that you’ll never be good enough to actually participate in these races instead of hanging on for dear life and why the hell did I pay $160 to do this? Then the real fun begins as the last kilometer comes into view, and it’s a wall 1 mile long. I guess today was really disappointing because it wasn’t like I did poorly because I just don’t have the ability to do better. I know when my climbing legs feel good, and today my body just didn’t feel right. I’m hoping that my legs felt heavy today because of my cortisone shot on Monday (to fix my nagging knee ligament) and that tomorrow I will feel better. At least Will did well today. I think he managed to stay roughly within the second group, which is impressive. He was also climbing very well up the first climb of the day. Until tomorrow.