foggy morning

It's bad form to only blog the good news.... I have to admit I've been less excited about typing reports, etc since my post crash non fitness came into focus.

Still, there has been plenty of fun out there. Yesterday for instance, at the District RR Championships, that was more fun than should be had on a foggy, cold Saturday morning.

It was a watershed day in a way for TeamOakland, we had more riders in the p1/2 than we did in the 4's. That's something to think about. We had Haydn, John, Scott, and I. Haydn and Scott had made noises about doing the Masters crit, but when they saw the 15 man field vs the big, big p1/2 field, they couldn't resist. Personally, I was never going to leave young master Wilk in the race all by himself...

At 110 miles (I believe my Garmin over Velo Promo on the distance) and 9400' of climbing, I can't say I was well prepared, but thought there's better way to get into the water rather than just jump in. We shed people every time over the climb. That little climb is small, but I think together with all the other battles you fight on that course it just takes it's toll. Plus at the top, if there any gap at all, you would need to fight the big headwind. A lot of attacks were occuring at the top of the climb and then on the flats on top. Guys staying back on the climb trying to conserve could be caught out quickly and their race was over.

John went on a two lap break about 2 laps in, which was a really good effort. Really good to get that exposure, also tactical for the team. That was with Chava, and Max from Metromint. They got caught after a while. Chava went again, after wunderkind Jarrod (Metromint) attacked for the umpteenth time and got away. It was at the turn around I think? They made a really big gap quickly and weren't to be seen again, for a long time. By the way, the turn around claimed a lot of victims too.

So the break turned into four, with an AV rider with Chava, Jarrod, and EMC. Giant were sort of blocking, or at least not pulling any more, and no other team was willing to do any. We were going along at 18 mph, or something retarded. I thought I would try to get something going and accelerated through. Somehow that turned into a half lap solo effort that at least let me do the climb easy, letting myself get caught just after the top.

I would like to think that the attacks is what made me get dropped on the ninth time over the climb, who knows. Maybe it was the bee sting, damn! that happened right after getting dropped, so that's not it. Anyway, did a lap with two other riders, and so was one of the last finishers anyway. Cringed a little when my wife said "at least you finished!".

Haydn was great by the way, he was a lot more patient than I and got top fifteen somewhere. Not bad for claiming to haven't rode that far since 2003! Some of that toughness from 'stralia.

I won't be surprised if it was close to 100 starters, but I'm guessing less than 30 finishers. I'll say 25, but I wasn't going to stick around long to see where I was.

Oh, I was about to go without telling the end of the break story! Chava was shelled, AV was shelled, and Jarrod and EMC still had 1:40 gap with one lap to go (had a max of 3 min at one point). Cal Giant ( and a little DBC too ) work had whittled it down, using up almost all their riders in the process. Then after the feed, two Strawberrys and Ted Huang attacked something fierce. I could see them one two way rode, killing it. They caught the break just before the end (not sure exactly where) and Cal Giant took it, with Huang in second. Hope Jarrod was third, what an effort!