DNS vs DNF (or The Bob Beal Masters Race)

which one is worse? Well DNS by a small margin right? I dunno.

What needs to be said is i'm wicked freaking humbled. And an absolutely confirmed B Masters racer. All these Cat 1s in the race (well that's the rumor and the word)... I'm a 'rookie' Cat 4 racing for the second time this year...

I got my ass handed to me. Saturday was fun. Lots of fun. Sunday sucked. Well sort of - it was fun racing with the wicked fast boys... The 30-34 guys started 30 seconds in front, and well... the 35-39 guys at the start were bitching that we were a bigger field with, specifically, Kyle Wolfe. Christian Young, and all the Stage 1 riders in their bubbles. It was f'n insane... And well turns out the older group did catch and pass the younger one... loads of bitching overheard afterwards about how the officials kept yelling at the racers to ride a separate race, no mixing of the fields...

Totally stupid. The race was fast. Way faster than the 3/4 race up in havrill i thought. it was completely flat with a headwind on the backside (tailwind for finishing sprint)... but then everyone but me has probably raced at Ninigret before. The corners weren't a problem... it was the out of the saddle accelerations after each corner from the dudes up front.

Oh and that Eugene Boronow dude... riding for Mengoni, he sat in the back for the first five or more laps then blew to the front and rode away from the field... I think we stayed between 25 and 35 mph the whole time i was hooked up in the crit.

But... i didn't say hooked up... and while maybe i should have ridden the last 14 laps solo to get lapped 5-10 times... my legs were not responding... I could hold 20 with signficant effort but that was about it... and those guys - going 5-15 mph faster... i'd have just been a road hazard... I pulled myself... so full of shame...

but...

like the entry says - there were a few guys who did not start the crit. and maybe they are smarter than me... maybe? probably...

I raced like a rookie, but the cornering in the crit, no problem, the field really wasn't yo-yoing too much in the crit... just a solid line, strung out single file or double file almost every lap, with a few moments of slowing down... and bunching up.

So anyway - that was sunday... Sucky... legs though, after Saturday? Kinda makes sense. It also proves to me, i'm NOT ready to race twice in a weekend. So these 'double' days... Maine, Gloucester... me not do both... that'd be fucking stupid.

Saturday. Now saturday was cool... Well. It was fun. And a great learning experience. I learned i need more prepration.

The Road race felt great for the first 1/2 lap, i surfed the front wheels between 2-6th wheel... then the pack slowed way the hell down and i was coasting and wound up in front and did no work (i thought) and well... then a few rolled through... then the rollers started... and i was feeling okay... working... not seeing any or much wind... and then someone thought it'd be a good idea to motor down one hill at 40 mph and then hold about 35 up the next long rise... well... i slunk to the back and started the dreadful yo-yo... and these guys were not slowing down... I burried myself everytime it went up and they didn't slow down... racing with Cat 1 guys... man... that's rather intense for my second race back...

anyway - i eventually was chewed up spit out the back... but it was just after we turned back onto 112, so most of a whole lap i managed to stay on...

came through the finish and saw a dude way back... i ate shit and kept trying to push it, sayin "finish, finish" and the guy was makign up time on me through the risers... and i said well fuck this lets see, he's prolly in my group. Sure'nuff. Well we raced the next two laps together... Met up with the 40+ field some asshole in a white jersey... (he might have been wearing BOB kit in the Cox masters race when he wasn't supposed to be) yelled at me to get out of the field cause i'm slowing it down... um... jackass, i was sitting in ON THE FUCKING BACK, minding my own bizz and this ass hats sitting on my wheel... the Navy guy from our field had fallen off the back so i slowed up, waved the SRAM car past and well... wouldn't ya know it... those 40 dudes slowed right down and we caught back up in no time. Turning onto 112 they musta smelled blood or something cause there were a few attacks and what not and Ted was dropped hard...

I dunno, i supposed i should have put my head down and let him hang alone, but for me, i hung back to work with him. He was fresh outa Japan, and used to climbing but not the flats or the wind... So i did the driving on the flats in the power section and i hung on his wheel as we climbed through the back side and what not.

As it was, we finished, about 15 minutes down from the field, but still completing the 42 miles in 1hr 53m, for an average speed of just over 22 mph.

Fast... it hurt... Sucked every ounce out of me.

Part of the dropping issue was preparation, and i wasn't as rested as i should have been going into the weekend. Foley and Burke said there were no hills really... well, Burke said the hills were my kind of power hills... and well... maybe they were... but mentally i didn't know where they were coming in, how many, and i felt 'too good' sitting towards the front. A power meter would have been telling me YO IDIOT - SIT THE FUCK IN ya gonna blow... and well maybe next time...

Hung out with some of the AFD guys... before the TT... Chatted with Ted, snacked and rested, stretched... then put the Spinachi bars on for the TT...

and put on my first skinsuit. Yes... you read that right. My very first skinsuit. *shock* *amazement* no way?! Yeah, they are coooooool. This one though is long sleeve (perfect for cross), and the long sleeves made me feel faster, couldn't feel the wind on my arm hair.

The TT is a slight uphill on the TT, not much of one, but ya feel it. And i feel pretty good about the 7:18 i put in. It was the one race of the weekend that i actually felt confident about doing it right. Well makes sense. Its what i've been doing this summer. TTs. Short ones. It was probably one of my better ones, even with the leg blowing morning and getting caught by Kyle Wolf at the 1.5 mile mark (he was my 30s behind me and the TT winner). I felt managing to average 24.7 or so was an acheivement. I tried to sprint through the finish but found the tank completely empty... Which, meant to me that i left it all out there.

it was a very 'refreshing' awakening to the 'Masters' scene. I can shoot for next year. Maybe like Zoo and the Fitch... Bobby Beal race can be *my* goal. The goal? To score some fucking points.

And, its time to retire the P-mount from commuting duty and make it a TT bike. Heck its time to start looking for an old 126mm spaced disk wheel with a freewheel. Or something like that. But i've got till the summer or so to make it a TT bike, and to pick up an aero helment, cause ya know, an aero helment is worth the same gain in time as the most aero wheels.

It was a successful weekend. The girls got to seem me riding around in circles, and my wife remarked that they were going FAST. Um. yeah... There are a few pics of the lanky slowass me to prove that i did actually start the crit... even if i don't get scored. Maybe a DNF in the crit means you don't get the privelage of being listed in the final results. That'd suck but... *shrug* i wasn't gonna ride around for 14 laps alone as those guys went zipping by...

So the take home message for myself is: I raced like a rookie, and yes i KNOW what to do, but knowing and being told what to do and then actually DOING IT are two different things it would seem. And well my TT thinking is getting on track (even if my legs were fucking hosed for the race), the Crit is getting closer, and the road race could use some work. Hopefully i can *work* on the road racing with some of those cool races i read about in the spring. The Crit stuff? Well maybe i need to hit Wells, Tuc or Ninigret next summer, repeatedly.

This morning's ride in with the trailer was slower than normal, but the cadence was high and the legs didn't feel like mine. But i made em work.

It was great to meet Murat and some new faces... Moocho respect for the guys who hung on to the tails of the fast dudes in our race.

Time for some coffee. And some light reading (you guessed it, manuals and textbooks).

G, just maybe the slowest 35-39 racer this past weekend