Next up was winning the Washington State road champs of course up at Olympic Valley. Now, all right, this year I think I have a little different perspective on racing. At this point perhaps I have given up on being the next Lance Armstrong overnight, but I have not given up on improving my aptitude and fitness as a bike racer. I approach races considering what the course is like and learning from mistakes which always happen, but the fewer, the better.
Olympic Valley
Honestly, Olympic Valley wasn't much of an event to write home about. Apex and Olympia Ortho sent some guys out on an early break and then proceeded to sit on the front. At one point, an Olympia Ortho rider went to the front and seemed to be actually doing some work. A
PIR
Again at PIR, it became apparent that I have to work on my field sprint. I tried to breakaway a lot and didn't have much of positioning or sprinting abilities. Good thing this race is every Tuesday and there are hot spots which makes for lots of practicing opportunities.
Vance Creek
And now for a course that isn't mostly flat! As I drove to the course, I noticed that the finish line was moved about 200m further west than last year so it was a false flat followed by very slight uphill immediately after the big hill. A finish very suited for me. This turned out to be a really fun race for me. The weather was really interesting in that it was dry on the western half of the course, but then rainy on the east side. We were going to do 6 laps, but on the first lap a big breakaway with all kinds of teams got away. Another highlight from the first lap was that there was another random pointless crash that I nearly missed - in fact there was a wheel of a bike flying in the air that I nudged out of the way with my right hand. There were perhaps 7 riders in the break so I decided that I should try and get in on that break since although it was really early, it may have a chance of surviving. So me and an Olympia Ortho rider attacked the filed and took about 2/3 of a lap to catch the break. But when I got to the break, it became apparent that the pace was a little too relaxed. It was so weird, there were like 9 of us - all from different teams - and on lap 4 we lost the entire 1:40 gap.
Well, back to the drawing board. There were some attacks after that, I can't really remember, but nothing was sticking. On the final lap Alex from Old Town made a good move for his abilities by attacking right before the farm road. He held a good gap, but lost it on the rollers. It was going to be a field sprint again. I positioned myself on the right and kept following wheels and scooting around people getting dropped. By the time we got to the top, I was third wheel and then Matt attacked. The wheel I was following jumped out and I had to give him some room to not take me out, then I followed that wheel, jumped around it and sprinted for 2nd! Woot Woot!
Montinore
On the way home from Vance Creek, I ended up getting to bed later than desired and not sleeping as much for the 9am race start the next day at Montinore. The course was really cool with lots of corners and a long power hill. The Klipper-mobile came by and we all got to the race with less than an hour to prep which is usually not enough for me I have found out. I kind of need to do everything before the race. Change, go to the bathroom, get the carbon wheelz ready, get my food ready, get my numbers ready. Perhaps I'm just slow at this prep work, but I got to the start line barely before the race started without having made as much use as desired out of the bathroom.
The pace was fast from the beginning and I was already getting slinkied off the back due to no warmup. The first time we went up the hill I knew I was in trouble. I was moving backwards in the pack and had to chase on the downhill. I also really had to go to the bathroom. The 3rd lap I had managed to get to the front and figured that since I was probably going to get dropped anyways, I might as well put in a good pull since not many other teams were racing. Just before the hill, I used some sharp corners and speed up and really strung out the field going into the hill. And then I proceeded to drop back through the field and ended up off the back at the top. I had to chase with a few other people for a while on the flats to get back on all while being in pain in the groin area at that point. Next lap I was dropped for good and detoured to the porto-potties at the staging area. But I still went for some riding after that and paced the women's field up the climb again. However, on the descent I noticed that my rear wheel was noticeably flat, so now I just called it quits altogether.
Rest Week
I'm pretty sure I still have not figured out how to execute on a getting a good rest week. The afternoon of the Montinore race I hung out with Klipper originally intending to hangout and help him with some yardwork. Instead, that turned into drinking 5 beers, watching the Giro, then watching Rugby 7s, then watching the Giro again and me finally biking home slightly intoxicated at about 11pm.
Two days so far this week I have gotten 9+ hours of sleep which were immensely needed, but the rest of the days have been around 7 hours and I am now grumpy. And I'm probably going to not do the OBRA champs tomorrow cause I'm grumpy due to lack of sleep. And now something smells in my apartment which is probably due to me not cleaning it. Right now I am in such a grumpy mode that I just want to yell "SHUTUP" to those little children nextdoor; I am entertaining going on another Facebook unfriending rampage against some people for really petty crap; and I want to even further highlight how disgusting some of my friends are for eating ice cream with a topping that had - I am not making this up - lactic acid as one of its ingredients. But I know all these things are counter-productive. Kids are actually very positive and fun, I regret unfriending some people from previous rampages and now it'll be weird if they ever find out, and there is actually debate as to whether lactic acid is as bad as it is made out to be.
Next rest week I seriously need to start it out right with going to bed at 9pm the first night. All this unpreparedness and lack of sleep I'm blaming on myself not getting a good start of getting to bed early enough and then not starting my day right enough the next day. I feel like a bike chain that hasn't been lubed in a while right now.
Coming up on DJStroky Racing...
1. Mutual of Enumclaw is going to be a serious race for me next weekend.
2. I'm getting a new race bike
3. I'm getting a TT bike
4. I'm not upgrading to the 2s yet, however I calculated all my upgrade points and I am still in the zone where I have enough to upgrade, but not enough for a forced upgrade! So all you people calling me 'sandbagger' can ponder that info. I actually don't have anywhere near enough points to upgrade if only my Oregon races are counted. My plan is to upgrade after Mt. Hood.
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