Soy Un Perdedor

Yeah, lost again. THREE races this time. In only 2 days! Hah, well, here's the story....

Valencia Stage Race. Short 8 mile time trial and crit on saturday, and a thick 96 mile road race on sunday (today). The TT? Easily my worst time trial ever. Not so much my effort on the bike, but my preparation leading up to it. I'm not one for excuses, ever. Ever ever. So what follows are not excuses, but just me pointing out my own negligence. Super early start time. 8:13am was mine. Some drama at registration, my own fault of course. Then I spent a full 30 seconds dialing in my borrowed 54cm TT bike. "Hey tony, do I look ok?" "Yeah, pretty good" "Allright." And with zero pedal strokes of warmup, I lined up to start the TT. Bad move. Stupid move. And my muscles let me know it. They just felt so thoroughly fooked after the 16 minute effort. I usually feel swell after these things. I sucked, and put in my worst individual time trial performance ever to finish 26th. Thurlow Rogers won. It was a cool course, nice and flat. And I even got to use a set of Zipp 808s courtesy of Brian. Bummer. Tony roccccccccked out for 8th place, ridiculously fast considering he's a small "climber" guy.

The crit was better. I felt surprisingly well throughout. Was in a couple moves, did some work on the front for no reason other than to gauge my own fitness, and played it too conservative in the sprint to finish 16th. Toyota United team time trialed off the front, and finished 1-2-3-5. Yeah. JJ Haedo was in our bunch, but didn't sprint. Woulda been cool as hell if he had.

Sunday's RR...96 miles. Really hilly, but no huge climbs. After 80 miles, however, those little guys seem gigantic. Oh, the negligence doesn't stop at the TT, it keeps goin. Right as we started a short neutral section, I realized that I'd forgotten to fill up my tire pressures before the start. latex tubes. Shite. The start time was at 8am, and my head just wasn't there. Dumb move, at best. But.......smooooothest 96 miles i've ever ridden. And honestly, they didn't feel "flat" at all. I completely forgot about it until after the race. Checked pressure then.......75psi!!! Yeahh! Veloflex carbon=best tire ever. I might drop them down to 110-115 instead of the usual 130 from now on. It just felt so good. The first lap was the hardest. Toyota United went nuts, with no one around to really battle them. These guys define "attack". Great precision, amazing kick, and anyone who so much as tries to "mark" one of their moves has to reallllly bury themselves to get on. Ridiculous. That's how i'm gonna attack from now on. Eventually, toyota-united established a elite group of 10 up the road. Then it was the main field/groupetto, where I hung out throughout the race. I attacked here and there, got brought back, and the bunch just sat around. Negative racing. People chasing things down for no reason other than to chase. So eventually, after one of my attacks got brought back (for the millionth time), I yelled at richard to GO. He hesitated for just a second, then went full gas, and established a small gap. Field got up there, brought 2 others with him, and a group of 4 (2 amgens, 1 helens, 1 starfish guy) stuck. Ahhh, yeah. Teammates. The next two laps were a blast. We'd slow down to .5 mph at some points. It was like a battle of "who can go the slowest". So about halfway through the last lap, I purposely let Stephen Ferreti (socalcycling.com) get a gap. I'd been marking everything prior, but let him get about 20 seconds. Broke out one of those Toyota-United style attacks, and bridged up, taking 2 others with me. We worked well together, and got a healthy gap. I eventually attacked my little group, and soloed in the 10 miles. Field cracked (the guy just upgraded from the 3s, so amazing effort regardless), and I saw Richard haulin about a minute up the road. Richard finished 11th, I got 13th. Tony 17th. Field 24th. The team was fantastic today, again, and we're slowly becoming more cohesive as well.


yeahhh photos:

Aram, Ton, Rich, Field

Post-Race Ahi Tostada @ poquito mas