It's a little different. People are a little different and I don't think I'm really known to have lots of charisma and bonding, yet I do have a lot of passion for racing and sometimes, perhaps often times find myself not having the same approach to training and racing as other people do. However, I really hope to continue and experience a year on a big team to really have a good feel for what that is like. And also to develop my social skills so that perhaps I become slightly more charismatic and able to get along with more people than not.
For whatever reason, competition brings out a whole different side of me which is quite different from my otherwise quiet demeanor in most situations. And I think that dichotomy throws off - perhaps puts off - some or perhaps a lot of people. I've been writing on this blog for 4 years now, but I've been holding my tongue or rather not publishing a few critiquing blog posts and flustered emails. I know I've been inspired by one of my favorite bike racing bloggers, PruDog who I would say is not one to hold back on his blog posts. There's something about communicating on the internet that just leads to writing things you may never say in person to someone (or maybe I don't know him well enough).
So without further ado, race reports:
The Dirty #1
Oddly enough, I was feeling really good for this race. Last year I was getting dropped in my first few races. When all was said and done, I was not the most happiest joyful person in the world to learn that with 33% of the field being our team, our team's best result was 8th. The next day I sent a very detailed email explaining what went wrong and what could be improved. Some didn't like it, some did, most didn't, I really don't know, but I now am encouraged to not send emails like that.
Sequim/Mason Lake #1
Sequim's rain shadow just couldn't hold it for those last 2 laps. HSP kicked everyone's butt. They had also had at least 10 teammates, but got 1st, 2nd, 5th and 8th. Slightly better results, but with all due respect former pro's and very motivated racers. I didn't do well in the field sprint because I still don't have the field sprinting technique down.
Mason Lake was all right and I found myself sitting in more often than usual. I'm still deciding whether that is a good or bad thing. I'm leaning towards bad, I think PruDog would agree. It came to a field sprint again and again I didn't do well.
Oh, an important thing to note - while Brant and I were up in Washington getting our asses handed to us by HSP, the rest of our Oregon contingent pulled out the W in the 123 race at the Dirty #2. Guess they showed me who knew something about bike racing, or were they proving something after receiving that very detailed email? One thing is for sure, Dean attacked a lot.
Sequim/Mason Lake #2
My girlfriend Laurel came up with me which was awfully nice of her. I felt like I had a little bit of a governor on my upper end fitness, but I hung in there. My crash avoidance skills were pretty good as 2 crashes happened right in front of me. The first crash was on the 3rd lap and I was able to avoid that and catch on easily. The 2nd crash was at 400 to go and somehow I ended up standing upright without a scratch on the new bike in the middle of maybe a dozen other riders on the ground. I had to step over at least 3 people to get out of that.
Over at Mason Lake, I was prepared for the worst as the radar looked like about 3/4 of an inch of rain was about to dump on us as we started (it didn't). I wore my rain jacket as my jersey which Bedford astutely noted for it's excellent parachute-like quality with my race numbers. The amount of pros at the race had me sort of starstruck (I get giddy inside when Morgan Schmitt remembers my name).
My move of the race was at the end of lap 1 when I figured I might as well get this party started by doing a break and waiting for the inevitable pro bridging up to me. Sure enough Steve Fisher came along with a HSP rider in tow, but then we were caught just before the first hill after corner 1. I got dropped, but I caught back on. I got dropped numerous other times that following lap and then I got dropped for good on lap 3. I made it my goal to complete 5 laps without getting lapped by the Cat 3 breakaway group.
I'm still running through all the factors that caused this embarrassing situation. I think it had less to do with the parachute-like outfit and my top candidates are not getting my new bike fit after it being built, not having my carbon wheels, having a spoke about to fall out of the front wheel I did have, too many blueberries for dinner the previous evening, and a sleep debt of approximately 1,000 hours over these past 4 years of racing. But I'm just writing it off as a bad day like I had last year at Heiser Farms where I got lapped. At Mason Lake I didn't get lapped by about 7 minutes when Rathe came by and did a victory salute consisting of making his race number as visible as possible from under his rain jacket.
done, publish, try to sleep, bye.
