We're All Wasted

It's August....I can't really figure out why my legs are still good. My mind is definitely my limiting factor at this point, as it's not really sure why I've been racing for so long with little reprieve. But hey, it's all still really fun. I've got a short (and uninteresting) report to delve into, but before that, definitely check out this clip from the Broadband Racer website. It's a spot-on synopsis to the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix...There's a brief clip of JJ winning the sprint, and though it isn' too clear, you can see me a couple spots back, coasting in...wondering what the hell just happened. I've told the story to 1000 different people already, it seems. I'm getting tired of it, so I might make up something cooler (and shorter) for future "so what happened at manhattan beach?" questions. So, we go from high-profile $10,000 NRC races with Health Nets and Toyotas to $1000 (only if the field is of sufficient size) local races with...umm...HELENS BIKE SHOP.

Today was the CBR Costa Mesa Criterium. Again, I wasn't planning on doing this race, I was supposed to be at camp. This entire week, I've been forcing myself to go places and do things that "I would have been missing" had I been at camp. Eh, it was an okay week...the stress (and expense) of trying to put together a bike was annoying, and 3 front flats in 3 rides almost put me over the edge. But i'm whole again. This morning was tedious. The plan was to ride out at 11am to a friend's place by 12 to bum a ride to the race (no metro to Costa Mesa). I no longer have a rear race wheel (my training wheel is a 36 spoke mavic cxp33 pig), so I borrowed one: Campy Eurus. Awesome wheel, but it had a 13-26 cassette...and I couldn't find my cassette tool in time, so put the 11-21 in a zip lock-bag, and hauled-ass to Santa Monica. Got to the race a full 90 minutes early! Ah...too much time! So I went and had a couple bean burrits at del taco...you need lots of calories for these 100k crits...and i'm blessed with a very tolerant stomach. We line up. Usual kids are out. Successfullliving.com had a couple guys. Socalcycling.com was well represented. Those guys...EVERY week, they're out there. FULL-team, balls-out racing. Amgen had that exactly once this year. Race starts. The announcing at CBR races is a bit "raw". It's not really "announcing," per se, but more like a couple guys taking turns yelling at the field to "Catch the break!" [dude...we have 500k left, we can give them 6 seconds], or announcing the withdrawal of a particular racer with great zeal. It's a 100k crit, anything goes, I guess. Grassroots. I really want to try my hand at race announcing one day...preferably the lower categories. Honestly!

Yeah, my tangents are annoying, but they're tons more interesting than the race itself, trust me. Okay. The race. It was the first race on my "new" bici. The bike is a size too big, and the cranks are a size too short. If only one of those conditions were the case, it'd be okay, but combining both makes for a strange adjustment. My back hurt a bit on the first couple rides, and with the smaller cranks I was able to sprint better, but everything else took a hit...no me gusta. But damn they help kick fast...really cool for sprints and short bridge efforts. So, it's 100k, late season, and I played it mostly conservative for the first 50k. A nice break was off for quite a bit. Christian Valenzuela was in there, and I was pretty sure they'd lap...but no. It came back. A couple minutes later I was in a sure-move: Christian, a SoCal guy, Rudy Napolitano, and myself. Great group, again, but nothing. Came back after a lap. Annoying. Right as the head of the field caught us, Christian snuck into another group the cheeky bastard, and that group lapped. Game over. End of Report. LOTS of crashes...and I've decided that I despise this course. People crash way too often for some reason: The sprint is sketch and dot-ladden, and the dots (those reflector things on lanes) are ALL over the course. I'm not sure who won. Congrats to him. Congrats to my teammate Richard who put in a nice solo dig with 10 laps to go. I think he hung on to finish first after the break. And some fotos........cause we can:

Friday night: me with my brother Ari who's pointing at my shirt indicating that it's actually his.

For Ms. Beard: 2004 Conference Final. Me and that guy crashed in the same race, same turn, same leg. But we looked good doing it. And serrrriously, we're not flexing, that's just how the legs are.