ooph

What a day.

Starting off with little and disrupted sleep transitioning into "shit I gotta move or i'll be wicked late" and finally getting there. Picked up Dr. Flats-a-lot on the way and got there in time to stand in line for a while getting numbers.

First off, What the HELL was I thinking signing up for a 42.5 mile road race with a f'n killer climb in it and a bunch of rollers? Seriously? Have I NOT learned anything in the last 5 years trying to do road races in New England? seriously. WTF? But hey Dr Flats-a-lot suggested we go do it, being close and all that, and I figured sure, what the hell, how bad can it be.

Then Myette posted his review, and Brent posted his damn Brentacol rating of that hill and, well too late. I had sealed my fate.

Hey but maybe things have changed. Maybe I can hang this time. I'm delusional enough to think I still have a chance.

Who isn't?

Besides Solobreak of course.

So we have this nice neutral start. Right up to a hill. And around the first turn some jackass f'n jams his chain/wheel/wiener and comes to a complete stop right in front of me pinning me to the curb and about another half dozen guys behind me. Yeah it was AWESOME. The whole field is riding away with Brier's "goal" to go ape shit right from the gun to whittle down the field. Fucking AWESOME.

So yeah. By the time I get extracted from the jackass with the f'n mechanical and the rest of the guys behind me the pack is f'n gone. Great. So 'we' spend the next couple miles and all of the downhill reeling them in. Wonderful way to start.

Yeah that is EXACTLY how I planned it. Awesome.

But hey we all managed to re-integrate (I assume we all did), then we turned up that horrible hill. I think Myette took us up that on that infamous Tour of Blackstone Valley way back a handful of years ago. That hill sucks. I hung with the pack for a good bit of it but really only about 1/2 of it. And well. I can only breath so hard and pedal so many watts. And it wasn't enough.

Commence 3 laps of riding with one or two other guys or alone.

Yeah.

It was awesome.

Sort of.

Jiggles was the only redeeming factor. That and Myette's family there. I am sore. Worked my ass off. And for what? I dunno.

Placing? No f'n clue.

I do know that the 35+ guys came through me, the leader very early in the final stretch of the last lap and then the tiny gaggle of uber fit freaks came past. Sealing my fate. They did 5 laps in the same time I did 4. Ah hell that really sucked.

Oh well.

I survived. Didn't flat, worked my ass off, raced hard (if you can call it racing) and I finished. I did seriously consider just riding back to the car after one lap for a bit. But no, I kept going.

At least it was shady and not so hot.

I sucked down gels, I ate clif blocks and I still had fuel in the tank to make the final climb. Not much but about what I can muster. Yeah I still suck road racing. It is f'n hard.

But

BUT

considering I don't train right now (aside from the occasional smack down and short flat 20 mile crit) how hard can I be on myself. Most of those guys are out there busting their ass with Power meters doing regular work outs and shit. Me? Not so much. Pass me a beer. Or not. Riding I'm doing. But focused, road racing beneficial stuff? Not so much. No coach, no "A" races, no plans for doing well on the road, just looking at cross.

Cyclocross. Time to start making progress. But then hell with Myette, Rowell and mother fucking BOLD going as well as they are - shit, kind of depressing, almost a "why bother."

So race report:
I started - got stuck, chased, sat in, got popped, rode around mostly alone, finished, went home.

I have not a CLUE how I finished. Were results posted? I have no idea. Made it home - went for a walk with L and Lucy, said hi to Frank. Drove out to the farm for a party, had a couple beers (not to many) ate too much food and now my feet are up, and I think all the damn coffee and double espresso gels are going to haunt me for a few more hours, if not all night. F'm i'm wired.

I did spot that Solobreak dude. I yelled at him but his deaf and blind ass must have been too focused on spotting his special friend Eric (I've been told by him not to use any of the other names, just Eric) to notice the big tall freak yelling at him as I rode by just before the finish.

Great seeing Alan, man he cracks me up at the finish line, I think maybe I was cracking him up too, anyway.

I survived. I raced my weakness, I feel I did better than in the past, and I do feel I'm making progress, but man, I still just don't have the raw watts/kg to survive with the freaks in Cat 4 racing, hell in any road races. Gotta take the lead of the rest of the big guys in New England and stick with the flat crits.

Or really stick with cyclocross. Why? Well because CX makes sense to me, I kind of figured out how not to be abysmally slow in it. It feels right. It is hella fun.

And maybe, just maybe I can figure out how to not be as slow as I have been in the past.

Life is tough enough without entering a road race.

And no, it isn't the bike. Sure I'm riding components from 1998, and I'm Lucky that Kenny had ONE 9 speed wheel in the SRAM Volvo, but then he did pass me 1/2 through the second lap. No the bike isn't slowing me down. I'm just doing the best I can with what I've got and it isn't good enough to contest hilly road races. So next time I even THINK about entering one, remind me that they just aren't my strength.

It still was fun and worth going up there for. The race was really well done. Well Marshalled, really well done. Nice job Green Line Velo. The Moto's were great. Too bad I didn't get a chance to watch them work more than I did.

We'll see how the results shake out. I doubt I made to to 75th like the race predictor said. I'm guessing more like 80-90th.

And happy father's day (yeah it is tomorrow - so i'm jumping the gun)

heddwch
G