Tucson Bicycle Classic – RR
Posted on March 30, 2008
Woke up feeling pretty good, got some good food in and off to the race.
30 minute drive and I got there with enough time to get things on, prep water bottles and go to the staging area (which was 0.5 mile away and had to be enforced 30 minutes before start time).
Race starts and things are looking good. We have no yellow jersey, so nothing on our shoulders. We let everyone else work. When I say WE, its me an a teammate of mine.
Winds start to pick up a bit and in the cross section before the “climb” the pace picks up. You could see that the average grade was very small, but the climbing came in bursts, which was fine with me cause they were the right number… one more and i would have been shelled. You could actually hold a lot of speed into them.
First lap goes off and we lost about 5 people. Second lap start and there is a flurry of attacks. Up the first grade everyone got guttered, up the small rises guys started to attack one after the other and that hurt quite a bit.
Once I crested the last little hill i knew I would be fine for the rest of the lap. The descent part of the course was insanely fast. With the cross wind pushing us to the centerline it made it very dangerous, luckily not a lot of cars coming up. On this lap we lost another 7-8 riders.
Last lap and we all brace for hell. Nothing really happens. It was the slowest time up the climb, chaotic feed zone placings, but a wicked descent to catch 2 guys that had sneaked away. It was 35-40mph until we caught these two.
The final stretch to the finish line consisted of a long 5 mile with a pretty strong headwind and then a right turn to the finish which was about 600m from the corner.
So we are just pacing in the group and I get myself to the front. I slowly start to bring the speed up and all of the sudden i am alone and a small gap opened. I kept riding tempo and the gap kept growing and all of the sudden I have 100 meters on the group. They had let me escape. I ride at a consistent pace and soon enough the wind starts to hurt. I talk to the motorcycle guy and he tells me I have about 1.5 miles to go. I start going a bit harder again. I have 200 meters on the group, maybe more. I am going to make it!!!!!!!
Then, it really starts to hurt. One guy bridges up to me. I sit in his slipstream after we make the turn, the wind is howling. I am sitting behind this guy and I see 600 watts on the meter. The guy fades, I pass him and look back. The group is now sprinting and i am 100 meters from the finish… 50 meters and bam, 10 guys pass me….crap… I honestly did not have anything left. A bit disappointed, but what can i do…I went as hard as I could.
Get back to the hotel and I find out I got a 30-second penalty. I had headphones on me. I know they are illegal, but I had nothing attached to them, it was just for ear protection against dust. I had them at Yuma and I am glad I did. The iPOD headphones are the only things that I could find that I can plug my ears and still be able to hear anything…oh well….
The interesting parr of this is who filed the complaint. There was this one guy that was riding like and ass. He kept cutting people off and on the 5th time he did it to me I held my line and we hit each other pretty hard. He screamed at me and i just told him to go fucking work cause at that time his teammate in yellow was losing the race. Well, he tried to rally people to file the complain, but nobody did….so today is payback time and payback is a bitch….
» Filed Under Cycling
Comments
One Response to “Tucson Bicycle Classic – RR”
Leave a Reply
nice job on your finish.