An All-Around Swell Weekend

Hey There,

The weekend was just as the title indicates -swell. I LOST both races. Hah, going back to the persistent "So, how'd you do?" question I get from people....I think saying "I lost" might take the cake as the best answer out there. Ah, geez. And on that note, if anyone out there has been to this blog page more than once and is NOT a cyclist...I commend you. This is as bike race-specific as it gets, though I'm trying to dilute it a bit more. In time, friends.

But not today. So, the weekend. Two races, two crits, two badaaaaaasssss courses. The saturday race was our own home race, put on by the Amgen Cycling Team . Awesome crit course with everything. Big hill, big headwind section, crosswind, and a smoking fast slight downhill tailwind sprint. Wide open turns, all that. I finished 23rd there, though I really should have been more aggressive througout. Wasted good fitness, i'd say. Missed the $$$ by 3 spots, ah well. Karl Bordine continues to astound everybody. He won handily. He had just one teammate in the race, and was able to clean the clocks of assorted pros from across the US (Health Net, Toyota United, Sierra Nevada, etc etc etc...all with 4-5 man squads). Attention: the socal scene is for real. Be warned. Then come get your clock cleaned by our amateurs.

Today's race was in the astoundingly picturesque (purposely chose that adjective to add to the irony of not having a camera) little town of Ojai, California. The Garret Lemire GP. The drive there was scenic and sparsely inhabited, then the town just springs up out of nowhere, nestled between two steep mountain ridges to the north and south, and the ocean about 10 miles to the west. Really nice, and definitely somewhere to consider hanging out sometime. The race organization was great great great; every volunteer and person in the crowd seemed genuinely happy to be there, and racers just fed off their energy. I was beaming throughout my race. The atmosphere really reminded me of superweek out in Wisconsin, but with better weather.

Post Race Spin
Photo: Tony

Anyhow, we had an agonizingly short 50 minutes for the Cat II race. I think we raced for 40. Ah well. Awesome course. Something for everyone: Technical turns, sprinter's hill, wiiiide open finishing straight on a slight incline, all on smooth pavement. We [figuratively] drew a name out of a hat, and decided to set things up for Tony (Restuccia). I had no problem with it, and neither did the rest of the team. Ahhh, wait, before I continue...we have a new guy on the squad, fresh off the cat 3 boat. Field (not sure of his last name). So now it's Skye, Tony, Brian, Richard, Perry, Field, and "the world's best armenian-vegetarian cyclist." Field's a good guy, loads of potential. Okay, so we're working for Tony. And we did. Richard did his classic thing near the front the entire race. Marked moves, yelled at silly riders who did dumb things, the whole bit. He's fun to watch for sure. And like I said earlier, I was smiling throughout the race......daylight savings, the crowd, the course, the weather, my fitness, the team.....ahhh, synchronicity. With pressure to get a result removed, I had free reign to mix things up, make people chase, etc. I was flattered when I made a big move on the outside through the start finish about midway through the race, and immediately found that two of the pre-race favorites (Ojai local Chris Barton and Rudy something) were right on my wheel. I let them sit there for about half a lap, they pulled through and we got a nice gap. I picked up a prime (giro helmet) at some point during this break, but we got brought back eventually. I recovered, tried a couple other moves, nothing stuck. Last lap comes, Tony and I are about mid pack. I give the signal. He's on, we went through the bell on the outside, and made tons of spots. A promising break still had about 10 seconds (Barton and a couple others). I took tony to the front of the pack on the next straightaway, 1/2 lap to go. I still felt cheery though, so then I went to the front myself and closed the gap to the leaders, no one else would do it, wanks. I closed it right as that final hill came (which is 400 meters from the line), and I sat up. Tony and Brian flew past. Some dudes crashed in front of me, I was going a 3mph at this point, so I managed to ride around. I coasted in for 506th place, without any idea as to how the boys did after I dropped them off. I told myself that if Tony got a top-10, i'd be happy. If not, he's dead. Tony finished 5th and Brian got 4th!!! The law-dog from the westside rocks this course all the time (he'd finished 6th last year). The team got some sweet results, some cash, lunch, the whole bit. Swell times indeed, a fine way to end my soiree in the Cat IIs...