more quick scribbles about Ojai

Sterlingless Magnum must be taking stupid pills for breakfast.

About 2/3'rds through the crit (which was like ... 90 minutes, or some ridiculous amount of time), he pulled one of the bigger dipshit moves I've seen in awhile by swinging his bike stupid in front of the pack to hit a turn in full show-off mode. He completely slid out and took down one of his teammates.

I was about 6 riders back and about wanted to run his hand over for good measure, but figured he'd been punished enough for his all-cock, no brains manuever.
- - -

Speaking of Rock Racing bashing ... i was at the line next to JitJoe's Hopkins listening to him give a good 5 minute monologue on how SRAM shifting can give you "6 gazillion watts" extra power just by perfecting the climber/sprint clickity-combo.

oh man, the dude has true Aussie humor.

Some BMC kid told Hopkins he loved his R.Bahati video, so i have to check that out with sound when i get home tonite.
- - -

Dominguez has huge power. I was pretty comfortable going up the hill in that crit all day long ... but, i know how much faster i could have gone.

When Ivan the Terrible shot past me once ... sweet jesus, that is a gear i'll never have.
- - -

We had about 20 minutes left in the crit and, honestly, I was feeling pretty good about the chances of squeakin' into the top 15, or so. Water was good, nutrition was good, and i was up in the front monitoring but not wasting any go-juice. I mean, there's no chance i'm winning one of these sprints ... but, if you position yourself right and surf the big accelerations ~ you can find yourself up there taking home some cash.

But, with 7 to go there was a pretty nasty swarm that i just flat out didn't pre-empt. If you react quickly and bite the bullet, it's easy enough to shoot ahead of the swarm and keep your positioning ... but, it was that one bad moment in the race for me.

My legs disappeared and i was crapped out the back 40 spots ... like an idiot.

fuk.

I did my best to move up after that, taking little chinks when i could. But, in the end i wasn't close.

stupid bike racing.
- - -

Candelario still may be my favorite of the bunch. I like his style. He does his own thing, has panache, and rides hard all the time.

can't say i'm a fan of the muttons ... but, the way he killed himself for Bajadali at this year's Redlands?

~ that shit is hotness in a bottle.