Allright: A Proper Update

Hi....from Los Angeles. I'll start this right off.

Gila: Well, as expected, the race was very very difficult. After finishing the first road race (95 miles of rollers, with a 6 mile, 10-17% climb to finish it off), my only thoughts were: You'd be stupid to show up at Gila without peak fitness. I left my peak fitness in March somewhere. Gila's not a race that you can just ride for kicks, or to train, or whatever people say they do. And let's not forget the altitude. BASE elevation is 6000. With a peak elevation of about 8400. My field consisted of several NRC superstars, and a fair share of unknown amateurs (like me) from around the States. Most had teams, but I'd say there were about 15 or so individual entrants around. Sean Kamman's the only other Amgen cat 1, and he's in Boston somewhere, so I was one of these solo dorks riding from feedzone to feedzone, begging, thieving...whichever.

Day 1:

Time Trial. I was the very last one to start. Bib #111. Phil Zajicke (Navigators) was my 30 second man. Chris Wherry (Toyota) was at 90 seconds. Nice. Phil was riding without water. "Hey guy, no water? for 35 minutes?" "35 minutes FOR YOU", he said, implying that he'd do it much quicker than that. Man, can't wait to be good so that I can say that to punk amateurs. I still think he's foolish for riding without water on a difficult TT course for almost 40 mins. So i'm last to start, no one's catching me. The TT starts straight uphill for about 6 miles. I had 55x11 gearing, and used the 55x19 the whole way up the hill, checking out the scene out front. My right aero bar came loose (my fault for not tightening it enough), and it was awkward for a bit, especially on downhills, cause it wasn't steady. Got some weird looks. Ah well, kept at it, caught my minute man, and finished 65th. 5 minutes back.

Warmup

Day 2:

Ahh. So cool to race such a high-profile event. While moving around the pack, you just see all these people as they'd been photographed in Velonews or some other cycling mag. Scott Moninger (Health Net) seems like a real introverted dude. Gord Fraser pissed more in that one race than I did all week. Toyota United ran the show, as they had a full 12 guys. Oh, and the coolest thing about these NRC Stage Race Road Races....the caravan. Say you get dropped....you can lose up to a minute, and usually still get back on though all the cars in the caravan. Too rad. So on this day, I felt pretty cool. I started with 2 bottles, figuring that it'd be easy-street 'till the climb at the end. About half way through, I was out of water. Bummer. I managed to steal a bottle off an unsuspecting dude in the feedzone. Dick move, I realize, but it's that or a DNF. There was another feedzone, just before the ascent of the final climb. Here we were going slow, and I was on the back of the main bunch, hanging on for dear life, while pleading with feedzone people for a bottle. I found salvation in some random guy, who gave me a plump cold bottle of water, AND a gel. Thank you anonymous savior. Karma comes 'round. I did get gapped at this point, and got to the base of the climb at the tail end of a strung-out blown-up field. The legs felt great after the feed, and I made some spots to finish 63rd, 9 minutes down.

Cruising up that final climb.
Yes, that's a wuss 39x26 gear i'm using.

Day 3:

On day 3, I was destroyed, I didn't think I'd finish inside the time limit. Day 3 was a RR, big hills in the beginning, then rollers to the finish. I didn't make it over the beginning hill with the group, and pacelined it with a group of 7 for 60 miles all the way to the finish, and surprisingly, made the time cut. Swell. I finished 466th. Or 467th? Not sure. I lost 15 minutes.

Me at this stage's start. In front of me is Gord Fraser (#33)
The guy right behind me to my right is Chris Wherry (#104)

Day 4:

Crit! Nice downtown crit course, with a nice 75 meter hill. Fast course, with pitiful pavement. Beat up my bike real good. By the time it was over, my seatpost had slipped quite a bit, and my left hood slipped pretty good too. It's amazing that my bike made it through. My hands were numb afterwards. It was a 40 laps, @ 1.01, for about 41 miles. We finished it in 90 minutes, not sure where I finished here, but didn't lose time! I think I barely made it at the back of the field. Danny Pate was sprinting for some reason, so I followed him, and yep. Done. One day to go.

The Cat 2s doing that hill I was talking about.

Check out #111's hoods. What a dweeb.

Day 5: GILA Monster RR.

Let me find the course profile for this RR...


This stage is affectionately (riiiight....affectionately) known as the Gila Monster Road Race. Who puts the hardest stage of a stage race on the last day? Who does that?? Ah well. I actually felt okay at the start. I think it's because everyone knew how insane the profiles would become. I had to drop back through the pack and caravan twice to fix a slipping seatpost. The final time, I squirted some cytomax on the seatpost to make it stick, and it worked. So if you look at the profile, i'm happy to say that I was with the field until about mile 60. Let me discredit that accomplishment by mentioning, again, that the pack wasn't really motoring yet. So I lost contact on this climb, but so did several others. I was in a group, and we pacelined to limit the damage, but eventually the caravan passed us, and I'd say we were about a minute or less down over the top, ah well. So I lost faith in mankind after this point, and on the next climb about 10 miles later, I went from group to group...but backwards. Fast forward lots of hours, and the finish line camp up, and the guy I was started speeding up. I looked him down, legs ready, and sprinted. And lost. To some skinny guy. Man. I think we were sprinting for 66th. So I ended up 67th. FortyFive (!!!) minutes back. 68th GC, at 1:15 back.

So, again, to people considering doing this race in the future: Get a calendar. Circle that first week of May with a red permanent marker, and make it the absolute focal point of your season. Nothing else should matter. Only then will you be able to do allright here, and I think it'd be worth it.

Me? I did my first ride since Gila yesterday, at rose bowl. A break was away, but I felt allright in the fred-filled field sprint, and took it okay. Hm. I don't know how my body will respond post-gila, but i'm treating it with kid-gloves. I might race Sunday, but having a swell time tonight or tomorrow is my top priority, for once. More introspective blatherings next time. Adddddio. Forza Cunego!