Thursday, May 14, 2009

Greenbelt & Italy

Quick thoughts:

1. Artist: Mos Def; Song: "Brooklyn" ... good stuff.
2. I saw a guy today who had the same bike/size that I do...that thing looked enormous. I should be a basketball player and not a cyclist...proportionally not right. I guess it makes for a good wheel to draft on.

Greenbelt #1:

Two things that became clear yesterday. First thing, Cat 1's and Cat 2's suffer just like the rest of us. Granted, they don't suffer quite as much as we do, but they do...and seeing that up close is good. That leads into number two, it is MUCH easier to race and not have to chase...being in the break or having a teammate in the break is a lot cooler than having to go to the front and try to keep the pace high to catch the guys up the road. I think thats what makes these guys 1's and 2's...they're smart about their racing. Put in the effort up front to make the break and you don't have to kill yourself trying to pull the break back after it is established. With about 5 to go I thought for sure that the break was gone. I put in a big effort for a lap to try to drag us back to the group and Win was sitting on my wheel (he had a boy in the break) and wasn't pulling through. (side note: The cool part of the 1/2/3 races I've done is that blocking is slightly different...there isn't as much pulling through and then sitting up; more just sitting on and not pulling through...I feel like that's more honorable. Anyway, we were sitting pretty around tenth (me, followed by Brandon, with Brig and Scott in tow) with 1 to go and ABRT swarmed around us. I started to panic a little as we were boxed in, but it opened up right before the bottom of the hill to the finish. Lead us out, Brandon battled for 5th, I rolled in for 8th (but it was pretty much shut down by then...so it wasn't a true earned top 10).

Lessons learned:
1. Make the break..it makes it easier on yourself and your teammates.
2. Know the finish to races and be patient in the run in...openings will happen.

It was a lot of fun. I hope to make more of them later this year.

Italy:

We are going. We're staying in Lucca for stage 13 of the Giro. I'm debating taking the DC flag with me and waving that thing like a crazy mofo...even though there aint nobody from DC in the race. 10 days. It's going to be a good time.

Cheers and good luck in racing.

2 comments:

Lance Lacy said...

G-belt was a lot of fun.whats the matter with Brandon? i asked him to pull me around all the way to the finish and he didnt,what kind of crap is that?....Hey cracker, have a safe trip, take lots O pics.

Drake said...

Mad props to you on quick thought #1...that album by Mos Def (Black on Both Sides) was one of the best "true" hip-hop albums to end out the 90's (and the 20th century). If you want to earn props from hip-hop gurus, learn and quote the lyrics from "Ms. Fat Booty"...

I feel you on the comments on blocking and breaks. Your sentiments of "more just sitting on and not pulling through" is almost a stark contrast to what happens in 4 and 3/4 races. I spun it up to catch a "break" that formed yesterday at Kelly only to find the 4 leaders sitting up and looking at each other like, "what now?".