THE FINAL SMACKDOWN

YEAH EUROPE WORST BAND EVER...

but when I said to myself "this will be the final smackdown of the year" somehow it was said in THE FINAL COUNTDOWN lyrics.

Wed night races transistion into wed night smackdowns pretty easily. Last week was an off week and yes - i've a huge backlog to write about. And that's a good thing. But i'm going to crack open a beer and talk about tonight's ride.

Tonight's ride started at somepoint, i dunno when, but yes, daylight is fading, we're losing the light. But it is also my favorite fucking time of the year to commute...  because of this:

One more shot on the way home. How could i not. #eastbaybikepath #bikecommute

A photo posted by geoff (@ge_willi) on Oct 13, 2015 at 2:50pm PDT

Because every ride home is the most wonderful sunset... or is close. So yes - we are losing daylight, that happens 'round here.

Smackdown happened last week, but not with me. I haven't been out for quite a few iterations. Last couple were attempted on the CXy bikes and that totally didn't go well. Not much fitness, terrible bike position, slow gearing, heavy wheels. Bad combo.

But then I started racing CX. A double at Quad to open it up - sure maybe there were a half dozen Take 5's consumed between the age group race and the SSCX race. And it was hot. And I was wearing a jumpsuit racing the garbage truck. So yeah. Beers + SUPER heavy noodle bike + wearing a parachute = not best race ever. But was still fun. Made Eric L think he's faster than me, so that's worth while.

Then I did a back to back double at Riverpoint, to prep for racing the short handled shovel challenge 4 days later. Then did that and wow that was. well anyway, super fun but crazy nuts. Best race was in the elites after a few Take 5s on the white blue but wearing orange jumpsuit.

TAKE 5 - can't, no take fives here...

After midnight came G-ster 45+ and that was way more awesome being in that catergory than I could have hoped. It was brilliant.  I had shitty start day 1 and chilled until traffic thinned and then went from pretty much last to 47th on the first page, day two, somwhat similar but bottle necks happened way earlier than day one and well - only managed 51st or something...  but still close to last at the start. Passing people.

THEN Night weasels, slow leak from cut sidewall meant i finished the race on the garbage truck after starting last row with Fatmarc's little brother and Timmy Young, passing up to close to 30th place or higher before flatting and giving back 30 places just trying to get to the pits. SO that was fun. Couple days later raced SSCX at providence and holy shit - Friday was the WORST bike racer experience EVER. it always it. Every. F'n Year. I love the course, I love the venue, but some how they manage to f'up the non-elite experience HUGELY every year. But I had a great race after a few first lap mechanicals. Passed people. Raced it. Finished, went to builders ball, didn't sell any prints but they looked good behind the Firefly bikes so there was that.

Worked the race for people. Took the week off. Raced Mansfield hollow, dropped the chain, Spencer passed me, mentally unplugged lost time because no one was behind me. Redemption at MRC. Love that place. And then...

well so...  Last week was rest week going into the weekend. Arguably needed more rest, but we can rest once cross is over, right? But this week early I got thinking "need to do smackdown" but sunset is getting close to 6pm and if we start at 5pm on an hour plus ride that's just cutting it too close. SOOOOOO

THE FINAL SMACKDOWN was born.

In my head.

and well - as lead loud mouth on the Prov Velo club, well LETS MAKE IT HAPPEN. Got Edgar C to showup, David E too, Andrew, the Fox, Kyle, Colby and at first some kid who let a gap open and then I had to bridge and never saw him again.

Was a good solid crew. No Chris Bailey or Eian. Thankfully or maybe not...

But there's no way i'm doing this ride/race on a CX bike in CX position NO SIR. And the Quantum Pro stil has wheels on it so...  why not! But this morning I was thinking about every advantage I could cash in on so I dug out the wheel covers. And, yes, since the rear wheel already weighed a ton, why not make it Aero as well. Disc cover. F'Yeah.

Man the bike fits differently than the others. Rode in. Good day. Chill ride in. But no sleep last night, okay some but NO WHERE NEAR ENOUGH. So tired. But here I am writing at this hour of the night. Go figure.

So couple things. I elected to wear the new lid that Freddie B forced me to buy. It is hunter blaze orange, and yeah, it has some swagger factor for me. I wore my HotSauce Racing cap that Mark McC gave me at PVD. And the orange PVDVC kit, with my orange socks. But before leaving I grabbed that new container of NECX embro. Because Why the FUCK wouldn't a race pace road ride qualify as Embro worth, also sheen and heat and stuff.

Headed out, rolling past the boat house on a warm up lap with Kyle and we rode through a swarm of mother fucking gnats. And well guess what, the sheen is strong but it also is a great fly trap for dozens of tiny black flies that hung out for the rest of the ride... Le sigh.

Headed out. Edgar pushed the pace. I took over, peeled off on Woodward and once again wound up behind the green one who let a MONSTER gap open after a turn and well, I dragged Colby back with me. Happens so many times but every time i give the ride the benefit of the doubt, maybe they won't suck as much as they look like they will. Yeah nope. It has happened though so I will probably keep doing it because the alternative is being a dick and I try to avoid doing it intentionally. Accidentally? I do it way too often for my own comfort.

So crushing it. Bike feeling not bad. Unfortunately my rotation comes up as we turn up Pine. 80%, no more. fuck those guys, they wanna go faster - GO FASTER. Took em a while, actually took me flicking the elbow. Way too long setting pace on Pine = BLOWN for final sprint. #SADTROMBONE But caught up and then rolled into second wheel.

And had an epiphany.

Second wheel is THE MOTHERFUCKING BEST PLACE to recover. Why? SOOOOO FUCKING SMOOTH. But saddly it means you're in the wind sooner. Which was fine because I felt recovered enough to drill it at 80% again, until flicking and letting the pack roll past. Rocky hill, felt not bad, so I held back, didn't content hoping to have something for hillside.

Forgetting that we have a hungry Andrew, Fox, and Edgar (all about the same size and because at least the first two were:: pro level VOMax) still hanging out, And well. Hillside kind of sucked but then we CRUSHED it on the next segment and did a good job beating the one I wanted to get ahead of on Strava, granted now I'm 8th behind all the guys who I lead out for half the segment.

But then motor and chill. Such a great ride.

Followed up with a tailwind home.

Made some chili, had a beer, time to sleep and reflect a bit.

Things have been good. No not good. Mostly awesome. I do need to sell a few more prints to pay for the run I had done, and deliver the three that were requested. So. Maybe I'll have time to put that togehter but looking at $30 for a ~12x19 or so signed print. It won't cover costs until they are all sold but there aren't that many and maybe there are enough people who like black and white art work who might help cover costs of doing this crazy thing called art. But hey, if art was easy we'd all have Etsy accounts, wait maybe I should (no probably not). anwyay.

Felt good on the bike. Couldn't stay with the young kids who are 50+ pounds lighter than me on the hills, but i'm okay with that. I came close to dropping everyone on Homestead riding at ~80% so I feel good about that. Confidence boosted.

This next weekend is up in the air, we'll see. Othe than NOT being at NoHo/CSI this year I don't have a clue what the rest of the season looks like other than racing NBX.

better figure that out i suppose.

anyway. maybe time for another beer to wind down from writing. Or maybe not. It is late. Gotta act at least a little like an athlete.

heddewch
G