Hi Team,
Ride/Race Reports
Mike, Matt, Steven and Evan went to battle on the hills of Pescadero. Nice work guys! It sounds like a fun and challenging race. In a stacked P1/2 field, Logan Loader placed second to 17 year old phenom Adrien Costa. On the other side of the country, Fast Freddie Rodriguez gave hope to all masters racers by winning the US National Championship at age 39. Wow.
Chris Brown and I rode in windswept Soledad with Andrew and his friend Brian yesterday. As I am a gentleman I politely waited for them at the top of every climb, often for several minutes. I even expressed concern when they reached the mountain tops, "I was worried that you guys got lost!" and "Did someone get a flat?" As they are not gentlemen but scoundrels, when a small gap opened up on a sandy descent the trio worked together, leaving me to chase alone against a battering headwind for five miles.
Andrew says he was trying to be helpful. He calls this my breakaway training. In his disarmingly charming Aussie accent Brownie explained, "That's what mates do." I look forward to returning the favor on the TNPR.
Andrew says he was trying to be helpful. He calls this my breakaway training. In his disarmingly charming Aussie accent Brownie explained, "That's what mates do." I look forward to returning the favor on the TNPR.
Upcoming Rides/Races
Victory Velo Omnium and the Selma Crit both look fun. But they are both too far for me. Are any of you going?
Closer to home is the Clean Air Criterium. It's on the course near the Salinas Airport and a perfect tune-up for the Downtown Salinas Criterium on June 22nd. The Cat 4 guys could easily stack their field. MBRT has potential to dominate the 2/3 field. D3, are you game? Brownie, Les, Leo, Jim B, Don Smith, Graham, Andrew, Ken & Jim, Robbie Franscioni? Imagine 10+ of us out there!
Sara Stearns is racing in the Senior Games. Wish her luck!
In Other News
The Criterium Du Dauphine is on. What a gutsy breakaway by the Europecar rider on stage one! Of course this is merely a prelude to Le Tour next month.
Check out this beautiful kingsnake that Keith DeFiebre found trailside. With his love for snakes and lightning fast reflexes, I'm starting to wonder if Keith was a mongoose in a past life. It makes sense when you think about it. Speaking of power animals...
MBRT is missing exactly one BISON. Rumor has it he flew into Paris last night and will spend the next several weeks grazing greener pastures in Belgium. He was nice enough to leave us a gift prior to his departure -- thanks to intelligent networking MBRT now has a half dozen bottles of wine to use as primes at the Downtown Salinas Criterium on June 22nd. THE BISON wrote an email to his dentist who also happens to own a winery. They offered up six bottles! I emailed a high school friend who owns Radar Watches -- he sent four watches.
So...what have you done to get primes?
Now is a great time for you to reach out to your friends, colleagues and local businesses. It's easy: Briefly tell them a little about the team and your cycling then say that we're having a big race this month. We're looking for donations that we can give as prizes.
SMR ride report:
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone want a play-by-play? OK, here goes:
,
The weather was perfect. 12-15 riders lined up for the start, including Stacy VanHorn, Dean Knudsen, THE BISON, Jeff Malnick, local hardman Eamon Lucas, Chris Brown and Andrew. Prior to the start I noticed that Stacy VanHorn grew a summer beard. It gave him the confidence to contest me for my warmup sprint to the stop sign past Fishwife.
Yes, I sprint on the warmup.
And Dean was there. For the newcomers, Dean raced for MBRT last year. He's a formidable climber with strong sprint. It was good to see him. He says he's been busy with his wife and just doing a few spin classes every week. But he rode like he's been putting in 16-20 hours on the bike every week.
THE BISON was out there on his new bike, which looks awesome.
It was good to see Jeff Malnick out but I'm not sure what happened to him.
Eamonwas a major factor throughout the ride. If you don't know Eamon, he's a 23 year old PG native who has been racing in Europe for the past few months. He's 6'4 and built like an NFL tight end, he calls me "sir", and he's an absolute monster on the bike. Chris Brown and I attempted an early breakaway out of the parking lot and Eamon towed the field up to us without breaking a sweat. A few surges later and Eamon rode off the front. THE BISON did a lot of work to close the gap but his new bike held him back a little. (Even the most awesome new bikes may have a few things which need to be ironed out; THE BISON's was missing a dropout screw which caused him to have to take it easy.)
Dean and I bridged to Eamon just prior to Cypress Point. The three of us worked together to the base of the climb.
Eamon and I rode the first two sections of the climb together. There was no chase in sight. Then he comfortably rode me off his wheel to crest the A-climb 13 seconds before me (I timed it). After that he was out of sight. Ouch.
I decided to wait for reinforcements and cruised to the descent. Brownie and Alex caught on. The three of us pacelined through the forest and back past Cypress Point. "How far up is Eamon?" they asked. I guessed a minute.
I was wrong.
Eamon hid in the bushes or something because all of the sudden he was behind us again. WTF. And again he towed a pod of riders up to our little break. W.T.F.
The rest of the ride is a bit of a blur for me. At some points I know that Eamon attacked and I was the only one dumb enough to chase him down. After that he flicked his elbow and I took a pull. This is where it gets really fuzzy. I remember a flash of red and Eamon blew past me. I rode alone in the pain cave for three miles and made it to Siren just in time to watch Andrew defeat the remaining rout in a bunch sprint.
After the ride Brownie, Andrew and I did another loop through Pebble Beach and worked on the timing of the sprint. Practice goes a long way! If all goes well we're going to lead out Andrew at the Clean Air criterium on the 9nth. And if not that race some other time.
So what makes that ride epic? It was epic for me as I've never before been broken off twice by the same guy in a single ride. What Eamon did was really hurtful. I guess my ego should get used to it. I hear Eamon is in town for six weeks.