Welp fan, yes we have been racn’. Sorry, for the delay in up dates. That second job I have as a teacher has been keeping me busy. But the “Oh-so pro” lyfe will be starting here in earnest in a little over a month. Then bikes and blogging will be all I do.
2010 started with us getting our skinny tyre racn’ on. We all have been mixing it up with those sometimes mean Type-A roadies. For me it has just been training so pack fill is all I concerned myself with. Bunny and Gunny got themselves “W” up in Mingo I do believe. Always the over achievers pack fill just won’t do for them. JR put on one hell of a mean RR in Motown. All sorts of heavy hitters showed. I guess the days have changed for RR in WV when it was just us hack MTBers and a few Pittsburgh guys to keep us honest. I used feel fast back then. Getting a 5th in a ½ race always sounded good even if there was only 4 guys in the race. Right?
So on to the dirt…
April 8th WVMBA #1: Big Bear Lake in West “by god”: I slapped together a geared bike this year so I decided to ride that in the Vet Expert class for the opener. I am unable to commit to the WVMBA series this year because of NUE conflicts and its late end so I hope to bounce between the Vet, SS and Pro classes. Mark S. put together a SWEET course. It had everything I love about Big Bear but not so much to make you cry. Gunny and I duked it out with our old pal Mark Glass and new pal Don Powers. Those two have some killer early season form ( I hope it does not last J). In the end they bested us. Bunny had a bad day out there with some crashing that caused some mechanical. Luckily, that mischievous Chris P. helped her out. By days end Robbie L got 3rd SS, Gunny 6th Vet Ex, Bunny 3rd Pro Purty ladies and me Chrissy got 3rd Vet Ex. I am always happy with a podium and cash.
April 25th: Greenbrier Marathon AMBC in Maryland: This was a test to see how my “diesel” form ( yes, on a geared bike..weird) was as we are about a month away from 100 miler season. Pittsburgh friend and WVMBA regular Robert Spreng and I got away from the rest pretty quickly. Sadly, after about a 1/2 a lap Robert did the same to me. His pace was just a tad harder than I thought I could handle for 4+ hours. I settled in at my pace and kept on trucking and I guess I kind of thought I had second all wrapped up…until a super fast excitable SS kid caught me. Ack, back to racing. We swapped turns leading and luckily I finally got away from him. About three hours in I was told that Robert was 15+ minutes ahead and that I was 15+ minutes ahead of third. I kept trucking along but admittedly I got a little complacent. The only carrot I had left was to get in before 1pm so I could go out for another lap. 1:06pm, no more laps and the record books will go down with Mr. Spreng a lap up on me. Oh well, he rode like a champ and 2nd aint so bad.
May 2nd: Escape from Granogue MASS series in Delaware: I started this weekend out with a 72 mile road race in Poolesville, MD. This strategy has helped me in the past but on this weekend I am afraid it failed me. It was the first super hot day and I did not have a feed so I nursed the water I had and I was pretty darn dehydrated by the end of the 72 miles. I felt this in my legs first thing when I finally threw my leg over my trusty SS Cannondale Sunday morning. Yikes, this aint good my legs were 2by4’s. Off we went. I hit the first climb in the led but quickly retreated backwards. The first lap was down right horrible. My breathing was labored not in the good way and my legs sucked. I had thoughts of pulling out but my tenacious spirit would not allow such a thing. If you aint hurt, sick or your bike is not completely broke you should never DNF fan. Ifn' you do it once you will do it again and it will just get easier and easier there after. I digress, the second lap I felt even worse, ugh!! Then as if I flipped a switch every thing came together in the latter half of the second lap. Bam, my race body had arrived from Poolseville, dang it an hour late!! Oh well, I had a stellar last lap. Buried myself to catch the leaders and went from wwwaaayy back to a lower podium spot. See fan, never quit unless you are hurt or sick. The course was a hoot- wet roots, slippery rocks, twisty this way and that and a whole lot of elevation change. It was a hard but fun weekend. And the new Cannondale and Lefty is sweet!!
…this just in Gunny and Bunny won in their respective class over in Ohioland.
Welp fan, thanks for reading. Things are full on until they are no longer sometime in December when cross is over.
As always "May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face" and may your wheels always find it safely back to the ground.
PEACE Chrissy
Hey Chris,
ReplyDeleteHow come you ain't got no Hautty sitting by your side like that other bloke?
I was only 2nd.
ReplyDeleteNo ladies for me but I did score a killer pump.