THUD!

I'm not sure if that quite captures my experience in my first crit this year. I started out slow and it wasn't even little by little, I died out completely and quickly. I've got great fitness this year but damn, not one bit of speed. The repeated punches out of the corners killed me stone dead in 10 minutes. I guess that is one of the problems with trying to cover the different disciplines in this sport as I've done in the last couple years. While my single speed mountain biking is really going well at the moment, my road is suffering. I guess I really need to go back and start my uphill intervals and low gear sprint training for the year. Now that it is getting warmer as well as lighter, this will be easier. I still can't believe how much of a slow-twitcher I've become over the past couple years. I'm not entirely comfortable with it since I used to be a pretty reliable crit rider even when I was out of shape. I did drown out the bad memory of the race on saturday with a good long fun (fairly tough at some points) mountain bike ride. After riding out and with Gunnar, Betsy and Mark Glass, with did a bit more than 3 hours on the trail. Then on the ride home, we did some sprints on the rail trail. I did all five while they took turns trying to work me over. I was undergeared to them (32x20 vs their 32x19 - makes quite a difference really). I still won 2 of the 5 and I also did them all. I'll put that trophy up there with my Black Bear derby win from last year. That'll get me a small coffee at some truck stop somewhere. Afterwards, we road a bit more on the trail, but then had to go up this nasty climbing trail. A good portion of it we had to walk the bikes up the trail steps. It looked like a 150+ foot gain in a short distance and then we still had the final climbs up to the house after that. I stayed with them til the final little pitch before the roadway. Then I fell apart.

just before proving you can do an endo on a 29er.

Git off them there brakes dammit! (pics from Race the Trace WVMBA '07)

Over the last several years, I've made falling apart a total art form over the years too. In a bigger race, if this is done right, it can be quite profitable. I had been to one stage race where I was the last rider on the road on the hilly road stage. Every time I caught someone, they'd quit. I guess they figured if I'd caught them, they were really out of it. It was raining and cold. The body was totally locking up and I was even having trouble breathing I was hurting so much. When I finally got in and crossed the line, I completely collapsed. I had to be helped off the bike. I was a total mess. Lying on the ground, drooling, I did look pretty pathetic. But, in my sorry looking state, I did arouse a lot of sympathy and my helmet quickly turned into a fruit basket and I was being given energy gels and bars, cokes, gatorade and water. Plus, the lady who was helping me gave me a good massage on the legs and back to help stop them from shaking so much. If I'd been in any shape to drink any beer that night, I don't think I would have had to pay. The riders who'd bailed and were in the truck behind me couldn't believe I finished and said drinks were on them that night. I guess that experience showed that if you can't do something well, at least be colorful about it.