View Single Post
Old 02-26-06, 05:29 PM
  #1  
2Rodies
El Diablo
 
2Rodies's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Austin Tx, Ex So Cal
Posts: 2,750

Bikes: Cannondale CAAD8/Record 10s, Felt DA700 Chorus 10s,

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Well race number two is in the books and with a clean bill of health from my cardiologist I was looking forward to a trouble free race.

I didn't sleep very soundly last night but I never have before a race so I wasn't too surprised. . I got there early enough and did a solid warm up for 45 mins. I stretched twice and was feeling good but I was pretty nervous. I kept thinking about GVGP and my issues there. My team mate Paul actually had put together a good plan and it started off well. We sent Rolando (he's tri guy but he's finished the Iron man in the top 50 twice) off the front on lap two and he got a pretty good gap. Unfortunately he was pretty gassed from yesterdays race (he decimated the field) and couldn't hold everyone off. Still the other teams had to get on the front to pull him back.


I stayed in the front but never on it and used my team mates and other riders to close down breaks. I was costing A LOT today. Toward the end of lap three I tried an attack and me and 4 other guys got the biggest gap of the day. But only one of them was willing to work so I sat up. On lap 4 I launched another attack, in retrospect that was probably not a smart move. I didn't want to come up to the finish with the whole bunch so I tried to get away. Again I was the strongest in our 3 man break and nobody could really pull so I sat up. We came to the finish climb and Paul was going to lead me out. I accelerated and started to ride past him so I drifted right and two riders got in between us. REI had a very strong rider (unfortunately I didn't know which one and this was crucial) and there were two REI guys in front of me. We were pinned all the way to the right and I started to wind it up. The two REI guys sat up and I was boxed in. The REI guy I should have marked was on the other side of the road and either finished 1st or 2nd. Paul was now about 25m up the road by the time I got out of my mess. I stood up and drilled it and passed about 12 guys and got on Pauls wheel. By the time we got over the top there were 4 guys about 20m up ahead and we were 50+meters ahead of the guys behind so I sat up and soft pedaled to the finish. I'm pretty sure Paul got 5 and I got sixth. I guess part of this is bad luck and part is not being aware of who I'm racing against. Still I felt like I was soft pedaling all day today. I had it at the end I know I could have been in the final sprint.

HR 170 max
HR 134 ave
Speed 23.9 ave



I'm very very happy with todays result. I raced smart and I raced strong. I'm feeling pretty good about Lago and the climbs to come!!!

Last edited by 2Rodies; 02-26-06 at 05:56 PM.
2Rodies is offline