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Old 06-09-13, 11:06 AM
  #579  
forrest_m
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From a stage race I did last month, out in the rural wine country near Zaragoza in northeastern Spain. The race promoter hired a professional video company to film and produce these, narration is in spanish, but easy enough to follow the action. The field is open category Masters, which basically means anyone over 25.*

I'm a little hesitant to post them, since I personally don't really figure in the videos, I mean I'm in there somewhere but you'd have to watch in slow motion to pick me out. I'm total pack fodder and that's on a good day. But the production values are really high, and they give a nice feel for what the racing is like over here. I finished this race in 130th overall, which qualified me for the Lanterne Rouge (but ahead of 70-odd people who got time limited by the officials).

Stage 2, 89 km road stage with 900 meters of climbing. My teammate Sergio gets some good airtime near the start with a suicide break going for the first intermediate sprint. (There was an 8km TT for Stage 1, but the video isn't nearly as interesting as the others.)

Stage 3, 95 km road stage with 1100 meters of climbing. I cracked badly on the last climb and was the last person to finish inside the time limit, rode the last 15 km solo with the police motorcycle at the back of the race enclosure right behind me telling me to pick it up or I'd get cut!


*The results are often broken down by age groups, but there's only one race and all the prestige is in the overall GC. The upside of this system is that with only one field to close the road for, we get full closure, team cars and the whole pro atmosphere. The down side is that there is no lower category - if you wanted to start racing as an adult, your first race would be in this same field!

Last edited by forrest_m; 06-09-13 at 11:07 AM. Reason: spelling
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