Have a good ride!
Ever since I stopped opening at Transcend I haven’t had to wake up all that early for work. It’s been nice. It means you have to work a little later in the day to get decent hours in, but I like the extra sleep.
But what’s really funny is the fact that the nights that I have had the least sleep in the last month have been on weekends, to ride my bike…
It’s a funny life I lead.
But I love it!
::SA
What a great weekend of racing my bike in the mountains!
I had no internet so I couldn’t post sooner, but man, it was great! The time trial started off pretty well. I started a little too hard, given the altitude, but ended up with a respectable time. Unfortunately lots of people had slightly more respectable times… Bruce rode well to finish up only 4 seconds down from the win!
After what felt like an eternity (including one and a half movies…) we started the crit at 8:40. I really wanted to do well, knowing that Sunday’s road race wasn’t designed for me. But I started too far back and had a really hard time moving up. I didn’t have a ton in my legs to jump up to the front, then jump on another attack. So I just worked as hard as I could and tried to get in something. After the second prime, the break went. A couple laps later I tried to bridge with a couple other guys, but everybody was on our wheels. It was a good course, hard to move up, but easy to hang on. Kind of weird.
The road race, what was going to happen? I knew who was going to be strong… Rob, Tim, Cyrus, Jamie. So we had to protect Bruce, and protect ourselves. I worked hard. I actually thought I was going to pop on just about every lap. After 4 laps, they cut us from 9 to 8. So the race got really hard in the next couple laps with major splits opening. Mike, Alex, and I did everything we could to close gaps and put Bruce in the right place. On the third last lap we had him bridging and I think he would have made it across if he could have just gone, but instead some people in our group thought it would be good to attack and bridge after that. So he didn’t make it across and I blew on the last climb on that lap. I chased hard until the climb, but had absolutely nothing left–at least I know I went hard enough… And just rode into the finish.
All in all, it was a great race! Amazing organization, spectacular scenery and courses, and a great field. Hopefully it will be bigger and better next year! Awesome!
::SA
What a race. I AM TIRED!
I had a great first 2 stages, putting out a new peak 5 second power and 20 minute power. Felt great.
Unfortunately, my effort in the TT didn’t leave me with much. I was in good position all the time. I think I spent almost 80% of the race on Cyrus’ wheel. I covered all of his and Chris’ attacks. And Peter punched it with just under 2 to go and I was suffering to stay on his wheel. Unfortunately on the back straight, with 2 corners to go, Peter blew, I couldn’t jump, and I got boxed in. Crap! Rode in with the back of the pack.
Today’s road race was an interesting one. It was kind of hard, but I think I was mostly just tired. Reasonably uneventful until the second KOM, where I popped right before the top on the second pitch. I suffered solo for a while, then chased hard with the group behind me. Peter led me out from about 2k as we were so unbelievably close to catching the pack, but I couldn’t keep it up and ended up 13th. Oh well. I just didn’t have it. I still finished 7th and won some money! It was a great race. I hope it continues to grow and get better and be the continuation of some great growth in the Alberta racing scene! Oh, and congrats to Marc for the winning and keeping the green team off the top step!
Now I just need to rest up for a wicked weekend in Banff. Looking forward to some pain and suffering care of Rob Britton…
::SA
Bruce says I walk up to him this morning, “you really shouldn’t have changed gears coming out of the corner last night.”
I was thinking I finished 11th, just out of the points or something. I wasn’t super happy with my ride last night and a bunch of other guys looked fast.
Bruce continues… “because you missed out on $150!”
Dang! Oh man! Crazy! I was second!!! I WAS SECOND!!! MAN! I REALLY SHOULDN’T HAVE CHANGED GEARS!!! DANG!!!
Oh well, get over it… Now I have a 30k TT to do.
I think it went pretty well. I felt pretty good. I put out some pretty good wattage. Now I just have to wait and see the results. Then we have a crit and road race to do. Yippee!
::SA
I’ve always said that there are 2 kinds of people in this world–those who do lots, work hard, and don’t complain and those who don’t do much but get stressed and tired. I’m 98% sure that I’m the latter. I know some great people who are the former. I mostly find it kind of interesting.
But tonight I think I realized there might be a third person. Somebody who does lots of good work, but doesn’t take much time to do it. So it seems like he’s not doing much, but he’s just doing lots of good stuff in little time. That’s the guy I want to be.
I have many grand ideas. But I just need to work on the finer details to make a reality…
::SA
We had a good weekend the last 2 days to have 1700 people ride from Nisku to Camrose and back. It’s kind of amazing just seeing all these people on the roads. The United guys did a great job of taking care of everybody. And I got to see a whole bunch of people I know too.
It solidified a couple thoughts I’ve been having recently about teams and sponsorship and stuff. Sponsorship is so much more than a logo, free stuff, and money.
And I think there is huge opportunity for teams and elite athletes to reach out to people in this way. It’s a good thing for the community and it can get people just excited about bikes. That’s the most important thing.
I’ll keep you up to date if I come up with any amazing revelations…
::SA
What is with all the noise in this world? Are we really that bored? Can’t we just be in peace and quiet?
This post stems from bible study a couple Mondays ago when Mike told a story from YC where the speaker was talking to 5 people specifically in all of Rexall and one still had his headphones in!!!! Are you serious?!?!?!?
I see pictures of my friends on facebook taking in the most beautiful sights, with headphones in their ears, of course!
Why can’t we just be in the peace and quiet?
Try and see how long you can sit still in peace and quiet tonight. I will.
::SA
“Because if I didn’t do this I’d have to get a real job”
Tom Danielson
“I’m lucky to be a bike racer”
Jon Page
And because Kyle Anderson wanted to be mentioned in this blog post, there is one where there wasn’t going to be. But it was a great Tuesday night crit tonight. I felt good, worked hard, had fun! Attacked lots, worked with good people, discussed the weekend of racing. A great Tuesday!
::SA
