Every friday after work ive made half ass plans to hang out with zack but up until this past weekend had not actually accomplished that act of hanging... turns out my old housemate lives across from his new place, and there was a party there that i wanted to attend.
also, turns out that saturday was the ft. richie crit, and chris and i had really done nothing to get a ride up there... but! we got a car last minute but it was going to get dropped off at our place sometime in the night, but chris informed me our benefactor may bail. So i go to party, its pretty awesome, 12:00 rolls around, no call about car being dropped off... 1:00, 1:30... then... right before 2:00 ... "hey dude, think im at your house... theres lots of bikes here... dude, does anyone you live with have homer simpson slippers? sick, im at the right place... droppin the keys through the mail slot." so im off towards home, getting back around 2:30. Only then do i start to pack for the race, and afterwards cannot sleep at all.
after an excercise in "chris carraway" plannaing, we get out of town around 6am from some house in hyattsville he is dog sitting at, and my headache and acidic stomach start a kickin...
The area around Ft. Richie is beautiful and would make for some fantastic riding. rolling hills transitioning from wide to narrow roads, in low spots running along creeks, and in middle elevations the types of small towns i want to someday live in... then at any height you can see farm land separating the small mountains and forests. I couldnt believe that we were heading to a crit not a road race.
6 turns, that felt more like 5, a slight climb that's forced reduction in pace created the only technical spots (ei crappy cement slabs, poor roads, and man hole covers, with 2 90 degree right turns) to a wide open left turn into a fast sweeping back section into an almost banked/slight drop right turn (ei fast) towards the last sharp right turn into the start finish.
only minutes before lining up did my body shape up and stop feeling like crap... and i started totally cold, i took 2 practice laps like it was a cyclocross race basically, then rolled up on derek's wheel at the line.
race was a good pace, first two laps were sketchy as it seemed most everyone hadnt spent much time on the course... but soon everyone realized that you really didnt need brakes at all... these two things probably are exclusive to the cat 5 race, as we arent that fast to begin with... and are always sketchy.
half way through derek made a jump and i blocked pretty well for him, but it was a bit early, after we caught him, he and i sat on the front for a bit, somehow missing a prime (did we even have any?) and ended up about 15 back as the tempo upped into the last few...
im learning a bit, and need to just get out there more... need to learn to conserve energy better... (last race i got dropped, this one ended and i felt like i hadnt even ridden yet) and learn to keep part of my mind on the lap count, i really thought we had one lap left until a few hundred feet from the line, picked it up a bit and finished 10th position, and felt like even though i dont have the sprinting legs to have won a battle for the line, with my head in the right place i could have made a move a bit earlier or been in a better spot.
basically, this race has got me stoked for more road racing, and i just realized that ride sally ride opened a few hours ago and i need to try and get into it before it fills up.
*Next race for me, Michael Murad. May 23rd.
I did a cross town jaunt today.
21 hours ago