Lansing, Illinois.The Verdigris Team has been called 'The Green Train of Death' by the local men crossers of Chicago. Its like a FUN RIDE! GET ON THE TRAIN! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee .....
Every time the 40+ men's race takes off a long train of five Green jerseys front the field. This race, the guys were exceptionally clever and used team tactics to send a rider off the front, but not the rider they were expecting to go off the front. While front runners were watching Tim Boundy, no one really paid any attention to Wayne Simon. Wayne takes off and with two team mates holding back the pack, he is soon so far off the field that it would be impossible for anyone to catch him. He has been racing on a mountain bike all these races and now is appearing on his new super speedy death machine. A Carbon Ridley decked out to the teeth with smart carbon wheels and mystery tires.
Lombardo dives into the front and sets a fast but false tempo. No one can get around Tim and Chris. Tim shared chasing any attacks down and soon anyone even thinking of attacking just gives it up. Wayne holds his position and soon is too far for anyone to defeat. Wayne wins the race. Chris gets second and Tim holds his first place OVERALL in the series. Tim said this race was the most he has ever had in a cyclo cross event.
My Hank was driven off course in the first lap and was soon back in it but was now hammering hard to find his way back to the front. He was alone for a lot of the race but joined Jim Nowak and together they picked off a few more guys. The front group was seperating and Hank found his legs and finished strong in the end.
Wayne and Hank were amazingly strong in the sand pit and seemed to float over it they made it look so easy.
Brainy Brian was awesome on this course. He had company this time in the cat 3 field with a somewhat tired Christo Lombardo . One mishap sent Brian off course but he got back on and the adreniline helped him get back up to his podium position. With huge effort he managed to catch the other guys and soon was in first place. He won! One more race in this 2007 series then he moves up to the 1-2's. !!! Congrats Brian!.
I had new tires. :) yuporino. Thanks to Hank's obsession with wheels and tires and thanks to Performance having a huge sale with an additional 20% off Mavic Tubeless rims....(Kysriums) .. Hank said "Merry Christmas' and got some more wheels.
I think there is a Wheel Anonymous Help group that meets on friday evenings at Willow Creek Church. Its called "WAH" I am going to sign him up.
But .... ok he is forgiven, He put on some super-cute white Dugas tubeless tires. They took two people and lots of swear words to get on the rims. But ooooh very Pretty. I practiced on them saturday in the rain and they were nice. They corner better than the slickery but super 'fast-as-blazes' Tufo clincher's I have been training on. I really hesitated on what to use today. Can tires really make that much difference? They seemed a bit sluggish but I was not sure if it was the tires or me. I thought pumping them up would help me but it made it worst. wierd. This is a case where too many choices and not enough experience is not a good thing. (WAH)
Saturday we were riding in the rain and the morning of the race it was spitting at us again. Hank had such bad luck with his carbon wheels the last couple of races so when he saw the rain, he just left the wheels at home. As it was, the carbon wheels would have worked perfectly today!!! (WAH) It never did rain in Lansing Illinois.
Yeah...just when I thought I had this stuff figured out. I am well into my first season of Cross. I think I have seen everything there is to cross. (Except stairs, I have not seen stairs yet).
I was just telling Hank that I was wishing I got into this years ago. But today I remembered why I never did cross races:
ITS F#*-UN'kn COLD OUT!!!!!
My first lap, The start. I really clipped in fast. But then my mind wandered. I dont know where my head was. I thought I was going to ram into Debby so I moved the other way and the viscious but very poised 'brown jersey' girl cut in front of me easily.
I am trying to recall where my head was....I was definitely not in a 'race' place. My brain just scares me sometimes. WHy didn't I stare at the first corner and just HAMMER like everyone else? Its like there are these black holes of 'tralalalala' that wander around in my brain and from time to time just suck away anything resembling a synapsis of thinking.
I think I was pondering why they don't use a gun but blow a whistle.
In America like....90% of the families have guns but yet we use whistles to start races. In Europe they have strict gun laws, no guns, but they use a gun to start their cyclo cross races with. (At least in Belgium on CyclingTV.com) and whistles to stop the crooks!
I thought Cross was good for me because the only thing to think about is the course , and don't fall over, and just GOGOGO! all as fast as you can go, you know, like Forest Gump. Very little other race tactics come into play. However, starting fast is one of those few tactics. uhm. Ok. I was last in the corner of 6 girls. It's not the end of the world. Right?
The course was simple, wide corners, its a long race. I fancy myself good in the corners even on slickery Tufo's. The pretty white Dr's cornered incredible nice and the Mavic Hub was already making those familiar rusty scratchy noises as only Mavic hubs can do. :)
I really think they felt sluggish to me. Or it was just me riding inside on my trainer too much. Or the fact I ridden a total of oh..what...5 hours all week. Can't decide.
Nah. its the tires.
They all slowed down at the corner going into the triple barricade section so I accelerated. I was firing up the brain now and making passing-plans when SUDDENLY a bike went flying into the air. Debby's bike was crossing the barricades without Debby !!
"GET UP!" I screamed at her and she got herself up. ((This was the start of the "cross is fun'' swearing competition that goes on in girls races.)) Soon she was behind me and I was behind Holly who managed to do a clean barricade and get around Debby smoothly. Devon had taken the opportunity to attack and was way up there. I was trying to get around Holly but also making myself stay calm. I came to the sand and went wide to the right. This was a good chance to break clean and get Devon. Oooh I can't do sand. I can't I can't. I can't. hate hate hate .
Debby was really good in the sand. Hank said that every time she entered the pit she was driving it so fast that the sand would just explode around her. In retrospect, I REALLy really really really wish I ran that first sand pit. Yup. It was a Beach VOLLEY ball court with THICK- as- a-Foot deep sand. Everyone went left. I went right. I felt the momentum drop and unclipped but my foot stuck. I fell over. DANG IT! I should have RUN THE DANG SAND!!!!
GEE~ at least I didn't get in anyone's way!!!!
Devon got away and all the girls passed me. I was back in 4th spot now and remounting on the wrong side. I started to go harder now. Oh man. I caught one gal, passed her and now was on Holly's wheel. All in all, I was pretty hilarious. As the race continued, Debby and Devon were futher away. I'd get my speed up but then mess up again. I landed on my back wheel on a remount, one foot clipped in and the other dangling over my back wheel. All tangled up. I am seriously thinking of doing a 'YOGA FOR CYCLO CROSS'' video for just these moments.
Every time I'd mess up I'd hear these shouts of "go Holly' filling the air around me as she gained on me and passed me. It is so easy to feel deflated after you try to get away and find yourself back where you started. Cross cross cross. So fun.
I have Mystery Bruises!
I saw Debby and Devon dissappearing. But you never know what can happen, just keep riding. Holly was much better at the technical stuff and since I was trying to get back up to Debby and Devon, we started to drag race. I'd pass her in the open sections and carry her with me. She'd pass me back ( very politely) and then I'd fall in the sand pit.
Finally...FINALLY...I cleaned the sand. It was awesome. People cheered. I was elated. I just buried myself and gave it all I had. Ahhhh but they were so far away!
Still , it felt like a victory though just to clean the sand pit. :)
I was on my own now. All I could do was keep riding and hope someone up there flats or collapses. I was doing all I could to close that horrid gap even if I could not make it to the front anymore. I thought this 'easy course' was super difficult and tough to get away on. You literally had to do this perfectly. I have no complaints about the course and it was done really well. You really had to be letter perfect in your technical skills and fast as heck. Kudo's goes to Debby for hanging tough and for Devon for being so talented but SOME DAY... oh yes....she will rue. :)
...and KUDO's to the guys!!!!!!!!!!
and especially to Hank for the super sweet tires and all the mechanical support. I wish I listened to you when you warned me to run the sand ...and lower the pressure!
Thank you!
Great job sunday. Lots of fun! I still love this sicko sport. Thanks to TIM for getting us all into this.
http://www.wheelsanonhelp.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment