the many rises and falls
It must be the drama that pulls us in ...
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Redlands this year was one for the memory banks. It saw the BMC team crumple under onslaught and one woman dominate no matter what thrown against her. But more than just these headlines, races are filled with hundreds of personal stories ... of anonymous sufferings, of quiet accomplishments, of meaningful - if unheralded - triumphs.
A triumph is getting back on your bike.
A triumph is taking heart from steady progress.
A triumph is pushing through the pain and frustration ... and finishing.
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Notables from what i gleaned about Redlands:
- Felicia Gomez went out swinging ~ going off the front for a number of laps in Sunday's Sunset sufferfest Loop. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Curi went with her. Would that have shaken Neben up enough to maybe set her on edge for Abbott to counter off?
ah well ... it was good to see aggressive racing out there. - BMC crumpled. Hard.
I think it goes to show that the talent pool in US cycling has spread out quite a bit and no one team is dominant right now.
makes for some nail-biters out there. - Them girls came down a bit hard on Tibco's Miller in the post race reporting of the crit. With a GC rider (Thorburn) in the break and two world-class sprinters ... that Miller worked less than VanGilder and Teutenberg in the final laps is to be expected. It was Thorburn's move to keep the pace up and try and get time. The other three were there for a stage win.
And this is Teutenberg and VanGilder we're talking about ...
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It MUST be the drama.
I've worked in non-profits most of my adult life. There's not a lot of money in it, and often, you get paid in frustration at banging your head against the wall, over and over again. But ... you keep at it. You keep at it.
You find your plot of ground to work ... to stoop over and dig, to cultivate. And occassionally, you straighten your back, turn up and smile at the sun as it moves past you, over you, never once pausing to recognize you at all.
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19 comments:
I too thought the comments about Brooke were unnecessarily harsh.
I was impressed that Brooke went with and stayed with that break. For a racer as new as her, that is very impressive. And in the end, the strongest won that stage and Christine got her seconds, so I wasn't sure why anything even needed to be said.
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The revelation of that race has to be Mara Abbot. It will be exciting to see how her season plays out. Always exciting when new talent hits the scene.
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And the 45 minutes of awake time we had with each other this weekend was not enough.
that third triumph is just so amazing..."got hit by a car"...and she still got back on the bike...wow
Harsh for sure.
True maybe but harsh all the same.
Seems the women are racing/talking more like the men these days.
MS
Oh yeah
Racing part=GOOD
Talking=Less than classy
MS
Hm. It's funny, because when I was racing collegiate with Brooke she was always one to call people out & talk trash, but she's been much more gracious the past two years. It's too bad that such a good performance got boiled down to that.
Emily VM is pretty badass.
Good links.
mmm ... Elis gives us some juicyG!
oh yes do share panda
collegiate gals talking rippity to each other is not the same as world class athletes doing so to the press
even if they were subdued about it, they knew what they were doing, and we all knew what they were saying.
meow
I don't personally have a lot of gossip, as she was an A racer and I was a B racer, so I only heard snippets off the bike and when the field came through. But I agree with VB -- it's a totally different thing on a vastly greater scale.
And I didn't mean to imply that Brooke deserved those comments; honestly, I've been really impressed with how much her attitude has changed in the past couple years and I'm incredibly impressed with her performance this year. Reputation is so hard to build up and so easy to tear down...and honestly I don't know why there was a need to say something like that, since that's exactly the finish I'd have called if you told me those four were in a break together.
ya, the collegiate scene is wayyy different.
Brooke & I use to train together when we both first started on the road. And even though she'd (And I, and anyone else on the team) would like to talk smack, she also encouraged any rider (no-matter what team) to do their best and give any pointers she had learned.
it's so exciting to see her excel at road racing as she has...
of course, you should see her at volley ball...
volleyball is for sissies
I didn't read the comments about Brooke but I will share this.
I wasn't so fond of Brooke when I first met her. I mean, honestly, she talked a lot and she annoyed the CRAP out of me, so in my youthful collegiate wisdom I wrote some really unprofessional race report where I heartlessly made fun of her. It was all in good fun, but imagine my mortification when I got an email from Brooke in my inbox titled "Your race report"! Oh good god...
Then, imagine my suprise when I opened it and read nothing but praise for my sense of humor and she told me great job in the race, and we have been friendly ever since. She's got a good head on her shoulders and doesn't take herself too seriously, and I like that. She's always been respectful of her competition, and it's a shame that not everyone repays the favor.
trash-talkin tractrac
lil' vixen.
THanks for the mention! it surely means a lot!
were any of you there for the women's race?
i thought the comments were well founded.
i was there.
meow!
now that's the kind of trash talkin' we like to hear.
always a little less rich when it's anony ... but still, very tastey, indeed.
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dunno, if it's a race like Redlands and you've no GC hopes at'all ... i don't see working less for a prestigious stage win against 1) one of the best NRC stage racers 2) two of the most decorated sprinters in women's cycling - as being too cheap of a move.
but, i wasn't there and don't know the score.
but, that was some good old fashioned whoopin' them girls did on Miller in the VsNews press.
it'd inspire me to train a bit harder, that's fo'sho.
anonymice = no credibility
But also = potentially juicy things...
Its all about establishing your place at the top. The lionesses are picking through the litter.
If Brooke can keep her head above water and learn from the experiences as she has in the past she should be ok. If she fails to learn from them you will see her riding in the dirt a lot.
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