Fawn Grove Roubaix (another CAT 5 mistake)

Fawn Grove brought out all kinds of riders...or at least all different kinds of gear for the bikes. In my group alone i saw a few triple cranksets, camelbacks, and thin worn down 700x23c. Other excentricities included a nice set of super deep carbon wheels (it was really windy and crappy road conditions), a few cross bikes (slighty over the top), and the list goes on.

The hills ended up being very short but also steep, so those along with the trecherously deep gravel section, it broke everything up pretty quickly. Which in my group (4/5) i figured would happen. All of a sudden i was out in front with 4 other decently strong guys chasing down the one guy who was pretty far off the front. And to be honestly fair...we weren't really chasing nor trying to breakaway from the group. Just keeping a mildly hard tempo. We descended the biggest down hill into a T-bone intersection and everyone ahead of me went left, and i followed without thinking. Shortly after i though it was weird that the pack wasn't in sight since it was a long straight uphill. we all turned around expecting the worst...we went the wrong way, which was the case. A guy from NCVC (Dan Paulson) and i rode the rest of the race together, not really pushing it too hard, but still managed to beat most of the field. 27th and 28th.

The most dissapointing thing is that i felt really good and was doing really well. Probably would have done really well too had i not made that silly mistake.

John Nusbaum took 11 in the 3/4 field, which had he done the 40+ group, he very well may have won. Simeon Green (dude from south France) took 6th in the Pro/1/2 field. He rode up with John and i to the race. Really nice guy.

2 weeks till Syns-Fit.

Silly netflix

I recently returned the movie Marley & Me to netflix. And while having not rated the movie, i logged onto my account to see that they were asking me to rate it so they can recommend two movies i would like depending on my rating.

i would give Marley & Me 3 stars. its decent at best...enjoyable.

So netflix pondered for a moment and searched its database in its entirety, then decided that having given 3 stars to Marley & Me that i would really enjoy the movies Young @ Heart and Synecdoche, New York.

WHAT? How does that make sense? No offense to Marley & Me, but those are two quality movies. Not sure how they justify this conclusion.

redemption?

Another race is a few days away. I felt pretty embarrassed after the last race and I'm hoping to redeem myself.

The finish sprint-

You can kind of see the havoc going on down the road.

NOTE: I'm not sure if my wife knows the camera has a zoom feature. sorry.

Today's race

3 laps of a 10 mile rolling course...one minor hill; short. Doesn't seem that bad.

i think a combination of a few things happend:

1. didn't eat and drink enough before hand
   
2. shouldn't have spent all my energy bridging up to the break on the first lap right before a long gradual uphill only to be caught in no man's land and then dropped like a rock off a cliff.
   
3. bad week of riding.

i finished probably in 30 or 40-something place.

The fact that the 1/2/3 field lost half of its field is a little reassuring. the 35+ started with 120 and ended with 50...geez.

next sunday is another race. Fawn Grove Roubaix.

Welcome to NOVA cycling

This Sunday the Jeff Cup 2009 will happen down in Charlottesville. I had heard this was a big deal around here, but i was unaware of just how excited everyone gets around here for this one race. Pretty much everyone in a 100 mile radius of this race will show up. Every field, for the most part, max's out. In fact I've been on the wait list for a month now and I am finally the next one off.

Everyone is making "predictions" for the 1/2/3 field and Bobby Lea is one of those contenders. I'm not sure how Floyd Landis's teammate is a 1/2/3 but again, I'm new here.

I have a bit more confidence now in my riding ability, which is right on time for this "prestigious" event. 3 laps on a rolling 10 mile course, one slight climb and an uphill finish.

With that said, my ankle recently has been giving me problems and the last 3 days have been nearly void of bike riding because of funeral/family stuff going on. I did say nearly, so not entirely. i did what i could.

Mt Weather and more...

I rode up Mt Weather this past Saturday with John and Zach....it looks something like this:I learned I'm not the strongest climber. While I'm obviously not the greatest rider either and that may have a larger factor, it seems that everyone has their specialty...something they are good at. I'm thinking mine is not ascending and that's fine. I'll continue to find ridiculous climbs and pursue them. I like it.

Tonight the Caps play Toronto and playoffs are just a short period away. That may be a corny way of saying it, but its true and the Caps better start playing stronger or they'll end up in a positioning far less favorable come the first week of playoffs.

Jeff Cup is this Sunday. The course is fairly up and down 30 miles on a 10 mile lap with a single moderate climb and a false flat finish. Its also supposed to rain. I'm excited for that.

adios!

Vint Hill Crit Series

Yesterday was the 540cycling.com group ride (I'm not sure why everyone includes the ".com" at the end of anything 540cycling, but oh well...I'm new).

It was a little rainy yesterday, and by that i mean it rained all day and weened off around 330-4. So by 530 it was nice out. The road had dried up a bit and it was low 50's. I still figured the group ride would be less than 5 people and i was right. It was John, Zach and myself. I was a tad happy about this because i knew that meant they would want to go hard being that they are both strong riders and they know i can at least hang.

We headed over to the Vint Hill Park where we are organizing a local crit series. We did one lap just chatting and then the fun started; we started attacking each other. One of my biggest weaknesses is my inability to go hard for very long. Which obviously comes with a lot more riding/racing/training. maybe next year...Anyway, it was a ton of fun.

So from now on we are going to use Thursday night group rides as interval/crit practice at that park. it was a ton of fun. A nice mix up for the week.

In other news, my wife's Grandfather died two days ago. and the funeral is on Wednesday. I watched him literally die slowly, and its an experience I'll never forget. I kept thinking about the Death Cab for Cutie song "What Sarah Said", as we watched his blood pressure slowly but surely lower. He died in his sleep sometime after we left the hospital.

Go Caps!