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Tuesday, January 31, 2006

12 x 2min @ 60 sec

lunch'ervals ~ it's what's for dessert.

The Patterson road race course is such a fun little exercise. It rolls out and back through a verdant little canyon. The only real challenging terrain in the race comes from the hideous wee kicker of a 2 mile climb at the button-end.

Our group rolled along workman-like until we hit the first steep pitches of the climb. A Davis Bike Club guy (jesse moore?) did a good bit of damage to the remainder of the field in the first 30 seconds of the hill. The silly thing starts with a 9-10% pitch that always has me clanking the granny gear with emergency broadcast tones.

There were a couple of TIAA boys that were very fun to watch on Saturday. I love seeing young talent pushing hard for careers in the sport. About half-way up the climb, lovely Lucas E took over the pace-making and kept it strong all the way up the climb. His climbing form is very, very good. Relaxed shoulders, high cadence, smooth pedalstroke and eyes always forward.

Fellow CREF-er, Taylor T, was the only rider sticking on Davis and Lucas' pace. I was about 20 seconds back and riding as best i could.

me = not ready to climb like that ... not one little bit.

Since I knew the decent pretty well, i figured there'd be no problem re-connecting after the climb. I spun around at the top, shooting a "howdy-ho" to Bob working the traffic, then put in a few hard pedalstrokes to start the elevation drop. A couple of bike leans running red on the radical-meter had me gobbling up the lead-trio before we were a mile down the hill.

me = needing better insurance.

The four of us worked together - soldering on with our gentlemanly training. Taylor had to whip out the utensil and let loose some excess fluid at one point - so, we slowed a bit for that. Otherwise, it was just a solid training day with good long pulls and excellent scenery. With a K to go, Lucas took off his vest and we waited for him to get his act all together for la sprint.

The finishing games didn't start until under 500 meters to go. It's a long, uphill sprint and patience is key. The vibe for our sprint was great. We had all wanted to get in a good bit of training that day, so our efforts up to that point were all heavy tempo setting and honorable goofballness.

We were training for 95% of the race. But, in that final 500 meters ... we were racin, baby.

With all three of them friendly-like (and all disgustingly young and attractive ... bastards) - i reckoned my chances were not all that great in our sprint. But, the legs felt yummy and i had been hankering to test the finishing speed ... so, figured it would be good for some giggles.

Lucas pulled a tricky little feint attack to try and get one of us to lead the sprint from far out. Nobody bit on his fakery, so an immediate counter attack was not made available to anyone ... we were all ready.

We rolled along after Lucas' attack ... the tension growing a bit as the 200 meter line came into sight and we positioned ourselves as best we could. Nobody would start the sprint - as the 250m up that finishing hill was an intimidating long and ugly effort.

Not on Jan 28th, thanks.

The Davis rider, Moore, finally succumbed to the pressure and with an audible "f$ck it," took off for the line. I jumped on his wheel immediately and felt a surge of 'yippee' course through the nubblies. Moore was accelerating to full sprint and i had a perfect little slingshot position. This was going to be easy-fun.

Yeah, the two TIAA boys were behind, but I figured if they could come around me ... they deserved the win. And, honestly, i thought my chances were pretty good.

It wasn't even close.

Taylor jumped a second before I chose to, and by the time I was starting my kick, he had 2 bike lengths on me.

What an acceleration.

It was beautiful to watch. By 3 pedalstrokes into my sprint, i knew there was no chance of catching him.

Ah well.

But wait - the sprints not over is it?

"waah?" - not satisfied with 1st, little Lucas' wheel started to hop to the left around mine from behind. Was he going to try and come around me?

Not a gawdamn chance.

Well, now i had to re-focus on the sprint and after a couple strokes of re-acceleration, figured I'd have popped Lucas off my wheel.

Nothing doing.

He was right there and actually looked to be moving left more in an attempt to begin a pass. "Shynola - no bloody way junior."

I can accept you guys whoopin' my butt with a well-timed jump ... but, you ain't coming around for the full-frontal, podium sweep b$tchslap.

So, i had to give the little cutie a bit of the fade over towards his line ... not to inhibit his sprint ... just to let him know that I wasn't going to give up the 2nd, no matter how much a spanking his teammate gave me for the win.

I mean, come'on ... a boy's gotta have some pride.
even on jan 28th.
~

9 comments:

PAB(a.k.a.CID) said...

A) you are seeming pretty damn fit for january--must be the weekend workouts...

B) your secret may be out of the bag

3) you are still a sick little monkey.

X Bunny said...

i don't think this is going to be a dull year....

Ron Castia said...

Nice finish Mic.

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

mmm ... weekend workouts.

yes, i think the racing this year is going to be extremely competitive ... i just hope we keep the good vibes going in our fields.

Personality conflicts = no bueno.

fun n' games = best ever.

I think Brother Maynard is hip on what i'm saying. Nice report on the Patterson race, bud. You guys are riding STU-rong!
~

Velo Bella said...

I closed my eyes during the dangerous descending part.

While reading your post I mean, not during the actual race.

Chico Cyclist said...

Best race report I've read since yesterday(see Brother Maynard's report). Dude, do you know how badazz you are??? That is sweet!!!

Jill Homer said...

Nice

Anonymous said...

That was an awesome race report.

norcalcyclingnews.com said...

thanks brudda.
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