Blasting Bowie...

...and blogging. Good combo.

Mr. Bowie is on because it follows "Daryl Hall and John Oates" on my itunes library...and they're the band of the week, but this ain't about Hall & Oates. What is it about? Nothing in particular....but....I raced my bike a few weeks ago! Woo! CBR #1 Race Report:

I really had no intention of pinning on a number that morning. I hadn't shaved my legs in months, skipped out on "formal" base training for the first time in 5 years, and though I'd been riding, the form was a big question mark. But I had an underlying motivation: unclaimed prize money from last season. I finished 8th overall in the CBR "best all around rider" classification which paid 10-deep. If you'll recall, I only did 3-4 of these, but the time I finished 4th was double points, and I picked up a bunch of points primes as well. In any case, I never got that money, so I figured I might be able to race and buy a license with the cash from '09. Woke up, shaved my legs, threw on the tattered race wheels with the tread-separating but still-awesome veloflexes, and rode out to the race. It was my first ride in days, because it'd been raining all week. The hour and a half warmup was perfect. Lined up, Vera at registration was really kind and let the cash go toward a new license + entry. So great to see all the familiar faces on an unusually warm and sunny season opening race.

Pinned the number, lined up, with the prime objective being finishing out the 90 minutes. We roll. Same as always. The first couple laps were nervous because of the aforementioned tire issues, but they were fine. Been through that turn 2 at the dominguez hills course a billion times before, and it felt great to lean into it a couple more times. Also, after a couple laps, I was surprised that I felt fine. No lactic acids, no pain caves, nothing. Right on. Rather than maintain, I sought out the pains and acids, and put out an attack on the hill between 2 and 3. Really more of a joke than an attack, but I got a gap, and to my surprise/dismay, my old claw teammate Mike T bridged up. Cool. Couple other guys bridged up, and we spun around for a few laps, and I picked up the first prime of the season -"free race entry". A couple laps later we were brought back. More circles ensued, and I really felt fine. I hadn't even given it full gas in the breaks. Then they announced the BIG-money prime of the day. I attacked in the same place, this time taking my more-recent former teammate, Weylon with me along with a la grange guy that isn't a sprinter. Waylon was on, we had a gap. 3 or 4 times I yelled, "hey hey, we split? we split?" but never really got confirmation. I gave him a perfect leadout, and we got back to the bunch. Bam! $10 in the pocket, 'cause he did hear me apparently.

More of this, no one really cared to get off the front completely, and there were no really massive team tactics going on. 5 to go, and a big break of 10 got off. Fine by me, 5 to go means i'm going to finish. 4-3-2 -the jostling begins. :) I attacked again, same place, right before the bell. The break was at 15 seconds. The attack was more to try to steal the meaningless field sprint for 11th, than it was to catch the break. ding-ding-ding, bell sounds, I have a gap, and one guy came with me. We were well clear through turns 1 and 2. Then the guy pulled through.....and we lost 5mph....gah....I pulled through as soon as I realized it, and the guy exploded on my wheel. I still had a gap through the last corner, and the break was RIGHT there, but I realized i'd be caught at 200m to go. So I just pulled it way inside and got out of the way.

And that's the report. Hehe...definitely the most detailed report you'll ever find for a hapless local crit, but hey, it's my hapless local crit smashfest. I should probably continue by talking about the team situation for this season. I'm riding for Predator Cycling. It's a small team, three of us in fact, and one other p/1/2 guy besides me. I don't think we're going to take over the world, but it's a fun atmosphere. Regrettably, there is no sponsorship outside of kits and really good shop support, so coupled with my current unemployment, it means the scope of my races might only be the CBR stuff. It's rough, and I don't know if any of the local teams (westside exempted) can provide entries. I'm open to support offers, however! Would happily crank out the power in a support role in exchange for entries/sandwiches/pats on the back, whatever.

And let's see what photos I can scavenge from the race...

1,000,000,000th time in this corner

The Failed Bell Lap Move

A good look at the new kit and the camo

glasses and cracked helmet and haggard shoes

There it is. My theory is that because I haven't trained as much, I put out less power, but......my thighs are smaller, so the lower drag coefficient balances out the power loss! Nice! Found the training loophole. There's another CBR in a couple weeks. Sigh. Wish I could do more, but...that's how it goes for now. And speaking of $ annoyance. It's the one year anniversary of that fateful day. I'm mostly healed up. The wrist still feels strange after a couple hours out. Might need to start using padded gloves. The shoulder is fine. I still have a massive ugly scar on my right shin that's as bright as the day it happened somehow. Lawyers are working on the case, and zero monies have come back to me. Again, I really don't recommend getting rear ended by 90 year old drivers in brand new SUVs. I especially don't recommend having opposing witness who say I somehow front-ended him. Lame.

and before we part, check out this photo shoot featuring my track bike!

and the mountain bike is going uber-v transformation....I need a 7.5" rear shock and a dremmel...and then I get 6" of travel in back + a disc mount!

ciao!