Monday, February 18, 2008

Im Sorry i have let you down!

For the past week and half or so i have not posted anything. Well actually i think it is comming up on two weeks now. The truth is, that i have not wanted to post because people would like me to post about my races and well they are not going so well. But i will now post all i can about the Tour of New Braunfels, and Th Valley of the Sun.

The tour of New Braunsfels was not one of my best races at all. The the first day was the crit. I started out feeling fine, warmed up and ready to go. The crit was more of a circuit becaues it was 2 miles long. It had no hills really but there was one point in the crit that i had to get used to and, that was the quik turn aroung a up hill corner. The problem wasn't the hill, it was the fact that every time we got up over it on to the flat, every body would take off like it was the last 200m of the sprint. After i got used to this crazy way of riding, all was good.
But i felt a sharp pain in the back of my leg, on the other side of my knee cap....It was cramp, a bad cramp, and i should have just called it quites right then, but i came to win not to drop out. I sucked it up and kept pushing. It was argueably the most amount of pain i have every been in. 3 laps to go and another sharp shot of pain ran down my leg. It was like my body was telling me to stop and was giving me warnings every so often. Now my legs were hurting even more than before.
1 lap to go and you remember that quik little hill i was talking about, yea well once again we took off on the flat part of it, then all the sudden both of my legs locked up. Luckily just after that my left leg loosed. But that right leg of my stayed locked all night long. if you havent guessed already i dropped out of the crit.
The next day was the road race i had a pretty early start, so me and rachel headed out to the start. My legs felt allot better than they did, but they still a little soar. I got on the trainers about an hour before my race started. Doing some quick little intervals to get the legs moving. The start of the road race was a little hecktak, there were around 85-90 people in my race, so it was really crowded. We started out pretty slow, nobody really attacking that much. The hole race was allot like this, a few jumps but nobody really got away. So far my legs were feeling pretty good. They weren't really soar that much anymore. The sprint was comming up, we had just caught a break that had about a 25 second lead, the sprint was an uphill sprint, not necasarily my specialty, but i had to win thats all i had in my head was winning this race.
The sprint started with roughly 300m to go, which again im not used to doing, but i pushed through it and was headed for the win making my way threw the pack, from 10 up to 5 and moving up some more. As i started to move around the outside of 3rd place the 4th ploace guy made an incredible stupid move that almoste took out everybody.
This guy the hole ride was just being a plan idiot and not making the greatest decision. He would not pay attention when he was moving around in the pack, and one time had to ride off the road because he wasn't paying attention and almost hit the wheel in front of him. He was deffinatly one of the fours who moved up way to fast.
So back to the sprint, this idiot in the front of me to the right(4th place) again almost hit the wheel in front of him so he decided to swing way over to the left heading straight for my bars. i would have would over to the left aswell and just kept moving up the feild passing 3rd place but my front wheel and his rear wheel where still even so i would have taken him out. by this point in the sprint we only had about 150m to go. Then only option i had was to brake hoping no one would run into me so that the idiot to the right of me would not take us all out. Since i had to start braking insanely everyone flew right by me, and i new if i started to sprint again, i would probably cause crash, so i was screwed majorly.
In conclusion the Tour of New Braunfels weekend was horrible for me.

This past weekend was VOS or Valley of the Sun for the none cyclist. Overall it was a fun weekend and the junior team pulled away with a nice 4th place by Mike Neimi. All though Mike got 4th overall, i was still pretty disappointed in myself.
The origanle plan was for Mike to get the jersey on the first day, the time trial. On the second day was the road race and The plan was for me Mike to attack up the hill on the second time around, then when ever the pelaton caught him Parker and I would attack again, hopping to break away for the rest of the race. On the 3 time up the hill Mike would break away again, and try to catch Parker and I, us 3 would go on to take the stage, with ease. Will was then on the last time up the hill, to the finish, attack and try to take fourth place, or the next best thing. On the last day was the crit, and we didn't really know what the plan was for the crit but i really wanted to win the crit, or do really well. I thought i had a pretty good chance too.
That was the plan but nothing ever goes the way it should. The time trial for the most part was okay, Will, Parker, and I were not really supose to go that hard just kinda warm up a little, and thats what we did. The only problem was that Mike's wheel was not in the drop's correctly and his wheel was rubbing on the chain stay the hole way. This pervented Mike from be able to go as hard as he could to win the TT. Mike ended up 9th place with about 2:30min down from 1st place. This meant that Mike needed the KOM in the road race and first by a little bit of time. So the next day are race started early, 7:30 to be exact. We had a little trouble getting out there so we did not have time to warm up at all. Luckily the race did not start out fast so we had a little warm up before the climb. The first time we went up the climb there wasn't an attack till we got up over it. Mike was the first one to attack, we pulled him back in and then Paker went. After that I gave it a go. Right now we were trying to keep Mike fresh, and make every one else tired. So Parker, Will, and I took turns attacking. Attack after attack we kept it going. Then on the straight away back down to the start line. I attacked one more time, little did i know there was another kid right on my wheel. This made it possible for us to break away from the pack. Which we did. At the beginning of the climb the 2nd time. We had about a 1:30, to 2:00 min lead. The only problem was trying to hold it up the climb, and for me that was no walk in the park. We started up the climb, and i soon got dropped, Mike came flying, by me on his way for the KOM. Soon the pack caught me and i just sat in with them up the climb. The hole 3rd lap the pack stayed together for the most part. A few km before going up the climb for the 3rd time, Mike broke away again, and would stay away. Going up the climb on the 3rd time, was the hardest for me. I got dropped but so not done, i needed to catch back on i case they caught Mike we needed to lead himout for the sprint. So i used everything i had to catch the group. With the pack in my sights, they were roughly 30 sec ahead. All the sudden i felt my front wheel starting the get wobbly. What are they odds. I had a flat, all i was thinking was how could this happen now, any other time would be fine but not now. To top it off there wasn't a wheel van in sight, im not sure how or packs wheel van wasn't near by. So now i was out of luck, i started walking, and by this time the pack was a good 3 min up the road. About 5min after i had started walking, and generouse rider came by with a tube and some air. After i had changed out the tube, i was so far behind that i decided to drop out because i thought i would not make the time cut. Little did i know that there wasn't a time cut, and i could have finished. So with this little mishap i was unable to race in the criterium the next day, which i was really looking forward to.

So there you have it my last two races in a nut shell, well not exactly but close enough. This week i have been getting ready for are up comming race, in the gym tuesday, and a couple of soft sprints, to open the legs up a little, nothing too much dont want to throttle it before a race. This weekend we are heading down to Austin, Tx for the Pace Bend Road Race. I am really looking forward to this race, its my kinda road race, steep quick climbs and RAD fast sprints. Looking for a win so im hopping every thing goes swimmingly.

Sorry Rodney for not posting in a while, and i now it has taken me a while to post this one but there was a lot to talk about, because of all the times i have not posted, but i got it out there so you have some reading material.

Too all the others out there that made it this far thank you it really shows you actually care about what i have to say.

And to end things off with a bag here is once again a funny story to keep you going.

Decomposing...

A tourist in Vienna is going through a graveyard and all of a sudden he hears some music. No one is around, so he starts searching for the source. He finally locates the origin and finds it is coming from a grave with a headstone that reads: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827. Then he realizes that the music is the Ninth Symphony and it is being played backward ! Puzzled, he leaves the graveyard and persuades a friend to return with him.

By the time they arrive back at the grave, the music has changed. This time it is the Seventh Symphony, but like the previous piece, it is being played backward. Curious, the men agree to consult a music scholar. When they return with the expert, the Fifth Symphony is playing, again backward. The expert notices that the symphonies are being played in the reverse order in which they were composed, the 9th, then the 7th, then the 5th.

By the next day the word has spread and a throng has gathered around the grave. They are all listening to the Second Symphony being played backward. Just then the graveyard's caretaker ambles up to the group. Someone in the crowd asks him if he has an explanation for the music. "Don't you get it?" the caretaker says incredulously. "He's decomposing!"

1 comment:

Will "The Thrill" Snodgrass said...

wow. I can't believe I just wasted a good minute of my life reading that joke. Thanks. Thanks a lot.