Epic blogging

Okay, I have not updated this thing forever. Sorry about that. A lot has happened since my last update. Went to Palm Springs with the Schlebierds. good times had by most. I only say by most, because the girls complained about how it was the guys vacation given that we got up at 6:00 am most days and went riding. Trust me that they got in a lot of vacation time as well. Got in a fair amount of riding while there. Did about 850k in 8 days of riding. For me it will never get much better than that. Did not do anything too epic, but did manage to hit most of the group rides down there. I like how they have the rides organized down there. It is a good set up, and everyone is welcome to come and puke their guts out while the locals ride you into the ground. It was over 80 every single day. Not sure I would want to be from there, but I sure like visiting there!
Done a couple of races recently! I went out and did the first BC cup of the season. It is called Harris Roubaix. It is run on the same day as the infamous Paris Roubaix in France/Belgium. about 1/3 of the race is run on gravel roads. I almost did not do the race, because I talked to this guy ( who is strong ) and said the thing is a disaster. He did not like the way that you entered the gravel sections, becasue the riders have to squeeze thourgh the posts to get onto the dyke. 60 guys into that small of an area is tight. So either be on the front or be patient and be prepared to accelerate. It was fast the first 2 laps. Guys were getting flicked on the gravel road like crazy. There are 2 8 inch areas to ride on and in between there is loose gravel. There are 2 sections were you hit some deep gravel, but if you have good handeling skills non of this should be an issue. Race went pretty much to plan. I rode mid pack not trying to burn too many matches and be attentive on the gravel sections. We were drilling the gravel at 45 km most times which, even though dead flat is still hard. i had to fill in some good gaps because guys would just give up teh ghost or lose concentration and hit the ditch. Pretty funny actually. So with 2 to go and half the pack gone we are just cruising on the pavement and there is a huge wreck. It was near the front and probably the result of everyone knowing that this thing was coming down to a "kick" to the finish. Well bikes are in the air and I am drinking my bottle. The wave just keeps moving further right as guys go down and I hit the grass/ditch. I managed to ride out but was in a big gear and was basically track standing. BTW I had my bottle in my teeth the whole time. Well ths split the group and, the group that go through laid the smack down. I hooked up with 3 other guys and we tapped it out to get back on. Well, we never really got back on. We chased for a lap, and a bit and as they eased knowing the sprint was coming we just tagged on the back and then it went for the sprint and that was all she wrote. I was screwed. I worked harder chasing for one lap than I did racing for 7 laps. Still I was pretty happy with it all. I managed to get in a good workout and avoid falling. I was exhausted the next day. The race was only 2 hours 15 min and it felt like 4 hours.

This past weekend I did a Masters series race. It is an Australian pursuit. So what happens is the race is handicapped. They send the 70+ guys out first and then 3 minutes later they send the 60+, then 5 minutes later the 40+, then 2 minutes later the 30+ guys go. The idea is to win the whole thing, not just your age. That means the 30 year guys have to bridge the gap to the 40 year olds etc. Well the 40 and 50 year olds had big packs relative to the 30 year olds and their deck was pretty stacked. The 30 year olds had half the numbers and half the horsepower. The 50 year olds looked good too. So from the start the speeds are over 45 km/hr and to me were not ging to sustainable with the number of guys that we had. Only half the guys were pulling through. It was not going to last and we were not catching the 40 or 50 year old guys. they were too big going too fast. The split was growing over the first 2 laps. Well, once we have determined that the race is not going to be fought for the overall it turned to the age groups. They break the 30-35 out for wins and point and the 35-39 out. Same applies for all the other groups. The 30 yr old dudes start attacking one another.. I want no part of this, so I just sit tight. Well it is carnage. I have to deceide do I want to fight it out with these guys and be assured of a win, by virtue of staying with them or race with the guys that are in my age group? Given that I rode for 3 plus hours the day before i opted for latter given that I was riding well, but not out of my socks. I would have had to dug deep to stay with the under 35 cat 1 guys and I may have been in their way. Actually one of the 30 year olds made my mind for me when he let a gap go and I( or anyone else )never filled it in. after he pulled out of the race that was it, 8 35-39 year old guys. I start to pull pretty hard as at first I thought we should make contact back with the group in front of us. Guys are coming around but it is really disorganized. We lose guys and it ends up being 3 of us for 4 laps. As we are rolling it I try to encourage one of the guys to roll through properly. He GIVES it to me. He tells me that he and his buddy are not going to do this becasue it is too hard. He says that if i want to ride like that then go ride ahead by yourself. Ride like that? You mean the way you should ride? Asshole! i tell them that it is easier than taking 4 minute pulls, that if you come through short and snappy things roll better and you don't burn as many matches. So, basically I am racing against two guys who are riding together against me. I would take pulls and then they would attack me. JIT's, I was getting pissed off. We needed to keep it smooth, becasue given the size of some of the other groups and the handicap we could get lapped. I am pretty much driving this thing, but eventually i just sit on. For about a lap. These 2 guys try again and again to drop me. Nothing though. The problem is that they wanted to shake me, but not bad enough to want to sacrafice for the other. so the tactic becomes simple, do nothing. So, everytime they attacked I would not respond. I let the other guy chase down his buddy. I was prepared to give the attacker a lot of rope being fairily confident I could bring him back. They kept trying, and I kept on taking my free ride back up to the attacker. I noticed that on one corner I had a gap so I drilled it. Still 3 to go and I was gone. I had about 20 seconds right away, and expanded it to about 35 seconds pretty quick. They were trying to bridge but they were not getting me back. 3 to go was a long way given how hilly and how much wind there was, but I was confident I would find someone to ride with. We come to another corner and there is a back up of cars. the sign person is waiving them to go through but they are at a standstill causing a back up of cars. I could not get through the intersection and take the corner. I lost my gap. Basically, they started hitting me all the time. Still nothing though. I am guessing the one guy is an average cat4 and the other a strong 4 or weak cat 3. they had 0 tactical sense. So part way through two to go, I drill a conrner and one of the guys comes with me. That is it. The other guys is gone. Now this guy wants to tap it out. His buddy who yelled at me is chasing, but it is over. I attack over some small hills and increase the gap. I am doing most of the work and not shaking my companion. We trade pulls for while and at one point he tells me he really wants to beat his buddy! Maybe they were attacking each other all race? we agreed to work up the big climb and then sort it out with 1 km to go. I could have popped him on the climb, he was struggling a bit, but I made a deal. We hit 200 m to go and he winds it up, but I am on his wheel and then I saw him shift up, that was it, I came around and "showed him a clean set of wheels" ( been saving that saying for about 15 years)for the V! Everyone was yelling for me to raise my arms, but I just did a very very small lift of my arms from the bars. Until that moment I had no idea whether I had won or not. That guys buddy came in a few minutes later. I rode about 5.5 hours for the weekend but they were not easy miles. Saturday I did a hard rolling ride not sure I was even going to ride, let alone race on sunday. So all in all I did pretty well. I did not conquer a huge strong group, but it is nice to "open up the account" once every ten years.

I saw this girl with a huge rack walking over the Burrard St bridge. I just about lost it into the railing. Remindes me of the Seinfeld were the chick is not wearing a bra and the get Jackie Childs involved.