Sunday in Hell

The movie. If you're crafty you can find it online now. In its entirety (youtube). I watched it over the last 4 days, never quite having the time to sit down and see the whole thing in one stretch.

And wouldn't you know it, just before the credits are rolling my 10 year old daughter (almost 11) walks by and asks what I'm watching and then wonders aloud "why are you watching a bunch of men taking a shower."

I was pretty much stumped. I had no answer but to say, this is how the film makers wanted to end the movie, watching these men wash the dirt of the Paris-Roubaix off all together.

This Sunday I headed back down to Ninigret for the Rick Newhouse race. Last year it was a good race. Gary and Scott got off in a break, Gary's team mate did a nice job disrupting the chase despite Marro's efforts. But the field was skimpy and tame compared to who lined up this year in the 3/4 race. It wasn't stacked like the p123 race, but it had more of the feel of a 35+ than a 4 race. And even considering the wind, it was not so slow.

I'd wanted to race the Strikes at least once, I've got a potential trade in the mix to swap them for a pair of DV46CX tubulars. And well, most smart people were racing box section wheels. It was f'n windy. It was not possible to race using my invisible aero bars, that would have been an instant recipe for hitting the cheese grater.

They felt fast into the wind, and I could feel a bit of a tug forward when i was on a broad reach.

The race was fun, really fun. I didn't race to win so much as I raced to race. It felt great to never be in difficulty but to be working my ass off. Never dug a hole that I couldn't climb out of. I went to the front for the first few laps or just the first lap, maybe it was two i dunno, but i wanted to feel the wind at speed with the wheels. And honestly it felt good to be hanging out up front and looking back and seeing a string of riders following.

I slid back a bit and chilled at the other end of the pack, then moved up, and back and around... more often than not I found myself in the wind after turn 4 (the sort of turn after the wheel pit on the back side) and it was pretty easy just holding pace... Hell with a handful to go and Brier up the road trying to do something I found myself slipping off the front of a lazy pack. And rather than just totally drill it to see if I could bridge I just rolled around solo. Like an idiot. WTF was I thinking? I have no idea. I should have buried it and pegged the needle to bridge up, but I just kind of rode around at 90% with the pack 1/2 a straight behind me. People kept dissapearing from the group. First it was a handful who got gapped off, then ones and twos. A gap would open and then when they hit the full force of the headwind they'd be done. It felt pretty cool that I was never in a position that I wasn't able to close a gap (from the back to the bunch) that opened. Closing the gap to the break away riders was a different story.

I had enough gas at the end to stay with the sprinting pack but again didn't race as smart maybe as I should. And this is going to sound like, i dunno an excuse for a poor finish, but it was totally a mistake on my part make no bones about it. After my little escapade I re-integrated into the pack and thought I heard Paul call out 3 to go. So I slid up into the front (top 3-8 somewhere) of the pack and then when we came around for what I thought should have been the bell lap, there was no bell, hmmm maybe I counted wrong or something but I was set up perfectly a lap too early and then my brain said WTF and oops, I had drifted back a bit enough and there was a good deal of pack confusing already and I just chalked it up to being an idiot and not paying more attention to the laps. sure it would have helped if there had been lap cards but there weren't and I'm not blaming anyone but myself.

That all said, I don't really care that I got 23/28 finishers... there was no daylight from the 24th place wheel up to the 7th place wheel, and we had a lot of starters (someone said 40-50 which seems right based on the numbers 141 to duane's 191 would give us 50 +/- a handful and that's still a solid number who didn't finish).

Donnie raced his heart out, preserving the breakaway's advantage but sacrificing his chances in the sprint by towing everyone into the wind. Bill Yarbroudy's repeated attempts to bridge the gap were rewarded finally by making it stick but coming up a bit short. And 5th and 6th just managed to hang on. Brier was up there solo in 7th but was swarmed before/at the last turn and didn't/couldn't hang on for a pack finish.

Oh and about Donnie. Donnie F'N Green rode a flat tire for 4 miles at Battenkill (flatted at the bottom of meetinghouse road) and still finished 2nd. He had to flag down someone to borrow a wheel. Took him 4 miles of riding a flat before he could get help. The wheels he had dutifully put in the wheel car were sitting behind the field way back somewhere.

This kid is (as we all know since he holds a UCI CX license) wicked strong. And to get 3rd in your very first crit? and that crit being a 3/4 with guys like Bill with thousands of races under their belt is pretty damn impressive. Impressive enough to get the middle name reserved for the likes of JONNY F'N BOLD and KATIE F'N COMPTON!

I didn't win a prime, I didn't place in the money, but I finished and had a fucking blast racing, boosted my confidence too. My HR numbers were a bit higher than the last race, avg'd 169 if you give a shit about that. Maxed out in the race at 175 (probably an accurate max at this point). For chris hinds my avg was only 162, and i worked a lot harder during that lap to stay away from the field to win the prime than I did in any one lap in this last race (not that means anything in regards to those numbers).

When's the next one? [Rhetorical, i can look at bikereg and actually know the date] I really wish I'd been able to stick around and race the 35+ race. I had to make due with alternatively cheering "FOLEY" and "FATASS" as he appeared to dangle at the back of the 45+ race for a few laps before leaving in the rusty trusty race wagon and heading up to build some hybrids and scott road bikes.

Yesterday was my sunday. Staying home with the girls on their first day of spring break. Today is it all microscopes! That and working on writing an artist statement... time to play with words, and finish eating lunch.

Heddwch