Race Rig

Here's a pic of my race rig, post River Gorge Omnium. The crash I succumbed to in the crit did some minor damage. Left side of handlebar got scraped up but thankfully they are aluminum so no need to replace. Left pedal scuffed as well as left side of rear QR. Finally, I got a mystery scuff on the right side of the downtube, starting on the edge of the "D" in Litespeed. It's very faint so no worries. The bike lives to ride again! After a quick bath she was much happier. Note the Indurain era Campy Shamals. Call me retro.

River Gorge Omnium

This weekend I had the pleasure of racing the River Gorge Omnium here in Chattanooga. Being a Cat 3 and over 30 I had a dilemma. Race Pro-1-2-3 against teams like Jittery Joes or race Masters 30+ against "retired" 1's and 2's. I chose the latter.

Saturday Race 1 - River Gorge RR, 62 miles, 2 mountain climbs including a mountain top finish. We rolled out around 8:30 AM. Neutral rollout until we got onto the two lane highway. As with any long RR it was pretty tame for a while until everyone got warmed up. Then guys started trying flyers before we got to the hills leading up to the first major climb. I went off the front myself, but it turned out it was right before the first hill. 500 meters, right turn and uphill we went. Turns out I was setting myself up for sag climbing. I started at the front and was mid-pack at the top of the hill. We then rolled through some small ring climbs and flats in Tennessee and Alabama before the first big climb, Sand Mountain. Sand Mountain got my attention. Narrow, shady and steep would be the best description. This is where the big hitters went nuts and took off. I tried to stay in contact but wound up in the second group, just ahead of the moto official. Once on top we had a group of about 6 chasing and I must say I never felt so pro. We kept the front group in sight across the top of the plateau and descended like crazy trying to catch up. Once we descended and were on the flats we wicked it up and started making up ground. Then we actually had to work our way through the caravan which consisted of the wheel truck and a couple of chase cars that had passed us on the plateau. Unfortunately, they weren't offering rolling handups as seen in the TdF. We finally caught the front group and caught our breath. But bad news was on the way. I started cramping right as we started a vicious stair step climb. I drifted back through the pack and off the back. I managed to hold the gap at about 75 meters the rest of the way up the climb. I started making up ground but the peloton hit the top of the hill and began zooming down while I was still chugging my way to the top. Game pretty much over at this point. I kept plugging along by myself for the rest of the race which was about 12 miles. On the final ascent to the finish I managed to catch a few folks but still only finished in 32cd position.

Saturday Race 2 - River Gorge TT, 4.3 miles - The legs were feeling a little nasty from the morning exertion. I didn't have TT bars but did have some Cane Creek clip-on drops. I warmed up well and rode to the start. Nice course, mostly downhill. One booger of a climb about 1.5 miles in. Back to the small chainring for that! On the steep descent to the flat section, I got a huge speed wobble from using the Cane Creeks. My hands were too close together and the slight wobble was hugely magnified at the back end of the bike. The hands then went straight to their normal position on the regular drops, and the wobble was gone. Sometimes I miss my old bike! Flat across a dam a hard right and downhill to the finish. Time 10:34 or so. Second to last place. But a lot less guys were racing.

Sunday Race 3 - Downtown Chattanooga Crit - 50 minutes, 4 corners, flat and fast. I warmed up good and felt good at the start. We started and I was mid pack, which is where I stayed until a guy tried to pedal through a corner. When we went down I was right behind him. I locked it up, got sideways and thought I was going to save it. Then my balance deserted me and the back wheel came up. I landed on the left side of my ass and my left hand. Then a guy behind me clipped my shoulder. Immediately my gluteus felt like it had a tennis ball inside it and my wrist was hurting. I got up, put the chain back on the chainring and headed to the pit for my free lap. I got pushed back in but things weren't the same as before. I rode in the pack but my wrist and rear kept letting me know was up. I managed to hang in until the last lap when I let go on the back stretch and just rolled in. Post race shake down: slight road rash on left elbow and shoulder. Big, fat hematoma on butt and very sore wrist. I may be getting an xray on that tomorrow.

All in all, I'm not real happy with the results, but I have to keep in mind that I haven't raced since LTC and have been moving, starting a new job, etc. Wait'll next year! Next up on my agenda is the Six Gap Century in Dahlonega, GA. It goes over some of the sick climbs of the Tour of Georgia.

Poor Decision Making

I signed myself up for a weekend in the hurt locker. Lots of vertical, a TT and a crit. I haven't done a race since May and that was quite a fiasco though I did look good for the first 5 laps. This looks to be even more of a pain extravaganza. Hopefully I will have good sensations, as the pros say, on the first day and do OK. It's also been a while since I did a 30+ race. But I didn't feel like trying my hand at a Pro, 1, 2, 3 Crit. I'll let you know how it goes.

Moostash

As you can see the little fella has quite a healthy growth coming in. He's been cultivating it for some time now. His goal is to be able to rival any biker by October. We'll see how it goes.

3 county, 3 mountain Sunday

Sunday was a tough ride. Left the house at 7 AM to hook up with a couple folks. Zoomed down the frontside of Signal on the bike to the K-mart. Headed out through Falling Water to Mowbray Mtn. Ascended Mowbray and rode around up on top for a while. I'd never spent much time up on top of that ridge before and really liked it. Hurtled down Hensen's Gap into Sequatchie Valley and headed south on East Valley road to Powell's Crossroads. From here I got to climb the back side of Suck Creek Mtn, which is quite an effort. Fortunately, I wasn't concerned about speed and did it far lower than race pace. Descending the front side of Suck Creek was the same as normal, sedate. Not a lot of curves and not terribly steep. At this point I had ridden about 60 miles and was debating whether to do the final climb up Signal and back to the house or to catch a ride up with a friend in their voiture. I chose to do what my man Stuey O'Grady says and "Harden the F*ck Up." I did the final climb, but used every gear I had to do it. It hurt a quite a bit. All told I think I had over 70 miles and three significant climbs on the day. Woo-hoo!

River Gorge Coming Up!

Me and and the Ghisallo are going to take a stab at racing again now that the move is over and I can train a bit more regularly. When this pic was taken I had been dropped in a crit after blowing up due to lack of training. I hope to have enough fitness this time to finish all legs of the omnium I'll be participating in. Check out the details here. These races should take the starch out of my legs, but it should be a good bit of fun. Mountainous RR, rolling TT and flat crit. Yeowch!