Athlete Blogs
April 5th, 2009
Tour of Walkersville p1/2 repor
I'm sitting here in maryland at my mom's house, watching these two huge bald eagles get fish from the magothy river and then tear them to shreds in this big tree. A while ago one had a fish that must have been 12 inches long. Very cool. Not a bad way to sit and enjoy some coffee.
Yesterday was a road race in walkersville, MD. I wasn't originally planning on racing saturday, but I got a spot and I figured why not. Conditions, like much of the east coast, were windy. I didn't ride the super deep 1080s yesterday, opted for the reynods DV46. They were fine, the 1080s woudl have been fine too I'm sure.
This year I made the somewhat concious decision to focus more on shorter events where my #1 goals lie - time trials and crits. I've always thought it weird that cyclists are one of few sports were most riders try to "focus" on everything, trying to be good at crits, TTs and long road races. Guess what - you can't realize your best form for all of these events at the same time. Another reason I've been focusing more on short stuff is I haven't really been all that interested in doing long rides or anythign much longer than 90 min.
The race had a very high level of competition - the strongest riders from the mid-atlantic, guys i know well but haven't seen in a while. No offense to the local carolina masters scene, but these guys are fast. On the first lap a break formed, I got in there with 7 or 8 other top riders and we rode away over the next 30 or 40 miles with up to a 1:45 advantage. The break had all the teams represented, if I were a betting man I'd say it would stick FOR SURE. But no, some guys worked, some not, there were attacks, it just wasn't to be. So we got caught with a few laps left, I was pretty gassed at that point, I rode another lap with the field putting in some hard efforts but I knew my legs were pretty much shot. I was much more interested in sunday's racing so I pulled out with 2 to go. No worries though, it was alot of fun and I felt great, even though I haven't raced more than 40 miles all year
Now - the lucky part for me, but not the other guys - is shortly after I packed it in, there was a really bad crash that required helecoptering guys out. That really sucks. I think everyone was ok - but they stopped the race for over 30 minutes with less than a lap to go. That never goes well once you cool down - so the day ended up being a real mess for alot of riders. But like I said, I had fun, got to see alot of old friends and enjoyed the sunshine.
Today is a M35 crit in tyson's corner, full field of 75 or 100 guys, shoudl be really fun. I'll probably hit the road back to NC after that - or if I'm feeling really good I'll stay for the later p1/2 crit as well - we will see.
Hope everyone has a good time in rock hill today for that 90 mile road race!
Oh yeah - they released all the details for masters nats the other day. Our time trial is only 16 miles, crit is 30 and the RR is 60. Short. I like it.
-pete
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