Sorry to all my loyal followers for not having a blog post in a while. I'm not angry at you, it's just that I've been racing and racing and racing some more.
A real brief recap:
Did Mutual of Enumclaw, the Canadians kicked my butt again and I liked it.
Did PIR in the pouring rain and tied my best ever finish place of 4th. Ugh.
Did Ski to Sea in probably just as bad conditions.
Did PIR and made the break but got a crappy finish from that break. Stupid PIR.
I will attempt to have a more exciting recap of each race weekend shortly. I'm doing Capitol Stage Race this weekend and then I've got my mid-season week off the bike which I am really looking forward to!
I took the MAX out to Hillsboro and attempted to partly crash the Oregon Cycling Challenge, which had a ride of 400 miles that if finished qualified the cyclist for Race Across America. But I was out to crash the 60 mile ride which just went up Bald Peak and then back via Spring Hill. I rode for a little bit with some riders who were actually able to do a good pace up the hill, but then I did 15 minute z3 interval and was gone. I then did a z4 up Bell Rd and then took a wrong turn a few times, tried to draft this group of Porsches out for a day drive and then finally found Scholls Ferry and rode back. I would've taken some pics, but I no longer have a memory card in my phone and there is some melted remnants of a power bar on the camera glass anyways.
Banana Belt 2:
I had to convince Klipper to commit to giving me a ride despite the forecast suggesting the small possibility of rain. He came over nonetheless and we drove over arguing discussing about whether one should use the directions a promoter gives you to get to a race or just put in an address into the nearest navigation-enabled device you have.
I didn't quite know how I would feel in the race, seems like the Oregon races are hard to read sometimes, but I wouldn't try breaks too early and try to have good positioning for hills. I guess I tried a lot of breakaways, but mainly after lap 3. There were a few good ones including one where it was Zach Winter (he's now on Planet X) and myself. My rear derailleur was skipping all over the place in the critical range that was needed for the hill sprint, so I was sort of resigned to a so-so finish, but decided to stick it out.
On the final lap there was a fair amount of action on the backstretch and there was a 2-man break of Rapha and HPC up the road. It seemed like Bedford was covering a lot of stuff at the front and that a lot of people were tired, so on the last riser before the long flat I decided it would be best to try to be in a break so I'd get last in the break due to the failing derailleur. I attacked and the derailleur skipped two or three times until I could finally mash without issue and then I was off. I almost didn't catch the break on the last big hill, but convinced myself to dig deep and finally caught them.
There was a fair amount of cat and mouse going on with the HPC guy who at the time I thought was Trevor Spahr trying to drop us more than a couple times, but I could always catch up. HPC tried once more to drop us about 200 meters before the wall, but I chased it down and then waited. Rapha guy took off close to the bottom and I waited while we took the right hand side up the hill. Right after the worst of the pavement, HPC sort of jumped, but I really kicked it up and passed HPC quickly... and then I passed Rapha... and then I had to shift down for the finish... and with a stroke of very good luck I shifted and the rear derailleur skipped into the perfect gear for the finish... but then I heard a guy coming up hard on the left... and I heard a woman yelling "C'MON STEVEN!!!"... but the gear I was going in was solid... I mashed it through the line before any other wheel and threw my fist in the air with a big smile.
The previous week, it seemed like there was a common theme going on where there were situations happening to me that would've elicited this response from onlookers:
As noted in my Walla Walla post, I discovered that one of my cleat screws was missing and thus tried to fix it in the morning, but had to go to Athlete's Lounge to get the correct screws and then ended up finally getting to work at 11:30. At PIR it was a rather dull race for me since I still couldn't figure ou that close to the front is the better place to be for a sprint.
On Thursday, I did some 3 minute hillclimbs up upper hall drive. On the 2nd climb, my left cleat was extremely loose between the shoe and the first apparatus of the cleat. And this lady in regular clothes with commuter bike with a pannier bag on her bike climbed up the hill just 20ish seconds slower than me, which made me feel not very fast.
Then, when I went to pick up my bag that I had left behind a power box. But it was gone. I then biked around the area and found the wallet that was in my bag on the ground by a street kid and got that back. Then I saw my bag on the bench and got that back. Then I saw my U-Lock in the hands of another street kid and also my keys in his hands which I convinced him to give back. But, I was still missing my employee badge, drivers license, phone and $40. I called the cops which arrived about a minute too late.
At least I had a few encounters with other strangers the rest of the weekend that made up for that bad experience. On Friday night, my frat bro, Gianpaolo came down for two nights. On Saturday night I borrowed another longboard from Peter and we skateboarded through Ladds, across the river on Hawthorne and then down the garage until security kicked us out. Then Sunday night to Tuesday night I hosted my first couchsurfer Charles who had a bunch of fun in town.
Right, so back to race day Saturday at Eugene. Continuing with the random strangers, I carpooled with an OBRA listserv dude down there who then stayed for the weekend. And on the way back I picked up a craigslist rideshare gal and drove her as far as Salem and made back most of my stolen wallet money. But the race definitely had a tone of HAHA to it. HAHA first off to all the riders who flatted. I rode 25c tires and had no problems and was doing great the first 2 laps. On lap 3 there were some breakaway attempts and such, but no dice so I stayed at the back. Then going into the gravel I started slowly riding off the front and then kept going and before I knew it I was about a mile ahead of the field.
I tried to maintain a maintainable pace, but there was plenty of looking back over my shoulder. I stayed out there the rest of that lap and hoped I could pull off something at the end. The next time up the hill I was trying to conserve some energy and sort of went through some traffic of the women's field. Once I got on the backstretch the gap was not enough for my comfort but I knew I should save something for the rollers. I thought that if I made it through the final curve with a gap I'd have a chance.
Except Rob English seeked his revenge and caught me at 1k, then another Eugene guy gave a kamakazie sprint and then the rest of the field passed me and I ended up 21st, just one place out of Oregon Cup points. After the finish I had to do a cool down partly cause I was at threshold for the past 45 minutes and partly cause I was pissed off at the peleton. I rode until I didn't want to yell at anyone and then I turned back.
At least this week has been a rest week, so I've got a little break.
