My bags were all packed and ready to go by the door. The alarm clock went off. I got up, got dressed, boiled water for my oatmeal, eat a comfortable breakfast while watching the Simpson's. Headed out the door about 6:15, but had to back track because Steve forgot his memory cards for his camera.
Then about an hour and half into the drive we hit a patch of standing water on the interstate and hydroplaned into a 540 spin full speed on the freeway. We crashed into the guard rail and slid backwards about 10 seconds (it felt like 10 minutes). Luckily there was a metro cop right behind up who stoped traffic and the CHP was on the scene no more then 5 minutes later. They followed up off the freeway to a gas station where we inspected the damaged and calmed our selves down. Everyone was OK! Phew! The car had seen better days, but considering the impact was in fairly good condition. The rear right tire was toast. We made a decision: Change the tire, get back on the road, and make the race. Despite our brush with death we were on the road with in an hour. By our calculations plenty of time to make it to the race.
... a couple hours later...
Steve mentioned something about feeling like we were in the wrong direction. When the road we were on ended his suspicion was conformed and with no atlas in the car our only hope was to get a hold of Gary. After awarding us the dingbell award of the century he gave us instructions on how to get back on track.
I changed in the car and registered just as my wave was going off. I actually made my start about 6 minutes late.
The judges had originally penalised me the full 6 something minutes for my late start. But after explaining my situation they reduced my time from 34 somthing to 28:53. The data from my Power Tap said 28:22, but I was feeling luky to get what I got.
I averaged a power of 330 watts for the effort. I have no clue how aero stuff works, but as I understand it a TT set up would've improved that time quite a bit. (I rode the TT in my drops)
The crit of Saturday was shaping up to be a good race. I finally got a nice long warm up in. Actually a little too long as the officials started the race about an hour late because of technical difficulties with the timing mechanism. The course was smooth and fast. After the first two laps I attacked a couple of times just to keep the pace up. It was pretty uneventful until the last lap, second to last turn. I was sitting 3rd or 4th wheel and a lamo tried to pass on the inside where there was no line, only metal barrier. He bumped me way out into the guy of my right and while I attempted to lean right into him the turn was left and he kept turning. My bike turned sideways and I flipped... Hard. I heard a crack as my head hit the pavement and then a crunch as a rider rolled right over my back. I got up and rode the last couple of meters to the finish line. The officials gave me a pack finish.
In the 3's there was an attack from the Gun that four other riders bridged to and thanks to good blocking by teammates it stayed away and all 5 riders made it across the line to the finish. Unfortunately Smitty and Jason were stuck in the pack and couldn't really make anything Happen. Chicken Ranchers Benko and Corey were also stuck in the pack and despite some mighty efforts couldn't get anyone organized.
In the 1's Gary Douville crossed the line first with cook less than an inch behind him. They won by tenths of a second. Be sure to check out Gary's blogs for a more detailed report.
I went to bed sat night thinking that I might sit out the road race. I was starting to feel feverish, little bit of a sore throat, had a headache from bonkin my head, and my hip was bruised pretty back and road rash covered my elbow, shoulder, hip, and back.
I woke up Sunday and was positive I was going to sit it out. I had razor blades in my throat and felt down right flu-ish... Plus it was pouring.
I showed up at the start and the rain was still coming down. I was feeling a little better and I knew if I didn't race I would regret it later. I layered up and headed on out. No warm up really because I had no intention of riding the trainer in the rain. The pace was railed from the gun and I was regretting racing let alone not warming up. Somehow I managed to hang with the lead group that established itself pretty early on despite being dropped a couple of times I managed to re bridge and hang on. We caught the 4's about 7 minutes into our race, and they were neutralized while we were allowed to pass. By this time it was raining heavily and every article of clothing I had on was soaked to the bone. We crested the first hill and the descent was foggy, wet, steep, cold, and FAST. Although towards the bottom of the desent the rain let up and the fog cleared a little bit. I was off form for the last climb back out of the Valley and was struggling just to maintain... I ended up finishing 9th according to the official results. 9th for the stage and 9th for the gc. All in all I was really stolked about the my first stage race.
My team mates and fellow local SBers had some killer results in the RR as well. Smitty finished 4th in the RR, Jason just a couple spots behind him. CRer Corey won the 3's RR. Not sure how Gary and Cookie ended up but I know their race was epic:
ME: Gary, how did it go.
Gary; Oh my God, hardest thing in my life.
From what I understand though, that's business as usual when Walker starts attacking.
In other news I start school tomorrow... Oh yeah, and we got lost on the way back while attempting to follow a short cut to avoid the traffic and ended up doing 2 hour circle.
Would I do it again? Absolutley!
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