rinse, wash, n' repeat

well, one down ~ one to go.

The Geezer Chumpyships of the Multiverse (road version35.39) was bagged by us unSafeWay boys yesterday. It was a very, very strong field and we ended up having enough of the massive-attack to take them for the win.

I'd been off solo for a while and was brought back with 2 laps remaining. The field was already whittled down to the star-chasers, so there was no hesitation allowed. My fellow blackard, Dan Martin, went nutzo with 3 straight attacks - finally breaking the will on the last. And so, he was off solo ~ with 22 miles of wind and heat and bitchy climbs howling 'give up' in his face.

He didn't.

I traded jobs with him and took my turn to monitor the would-be's. Normally, I am NOT a believer in aggressive 'blocking'. I'm of the opinion that if you've got a man up the road, you let the kids decide if they want to chase and plant yourself on the back-end, out of the way, waiting to pounce if they do bring back your teammate.

But

this was for the jersey, yo. So, I did my most to kill that chase. The physical was to punch into 2nd wheel as often as they'd allow, but always moving out of the way if someone wanted it. You want to play honorable-like, even if you're cutting for the jugular. The pyschological was to point out clearly to those who would pull just how free of a ride they were giving to the big hitters sitting on. These same big-hitters would yell like school children to try and intimidate other boys into doing what they wanted. One particularly nasty ex-pro, current douche-bag was very vocal in his criticiques of riders and I went to their defense more than once.

In the end, it mattered little because my teammie pushed through all the pain and claimed us the first jersey of the weekend. It was sweet. And so, today ~ we try it all over again for another.

silly bike racing.