Westlake Worlds A Race

Two words describe my first outing with the A group tonight.

I suck.

Thanks John B. for hanging out with me during the race.

Matt O. did great along with Tom "Killer" K and Chris B in the As. Nice job guys.

I don't know how the killer Bs did; Ian, JV, Dave K, and......?

I will admit the after race adult beverages/wings with Brett D made it all seem better....thanks Brett!

Nite,
Rick

Hinkley Du

Our multisport folks had a race yesterday and as you can see in the photo brought home some hardware. I have 1.5 GB of new photos on my FLICKR account. Gary B. used my NIKON to take some of the shots along with shots from his Sony. Eric listed how everyone did.

Gotta go.....more later.

Alan Wong did well & I wanted to know what his secret was...he reluctantly agreed to show me (I'm thinking EPO/some special mix of lab experiments).......nope it was the twinkies!

Rick

SBR Group Ride

I forgot to put this in.....
SBR had a group ride/pick up your racing kit/social get together/eats afterwards and meet some of the new folks ride last Friday.
Everyone had a great time, seems Michael was running late and showed up less helmet.
(disclaimer - Team SBR does not encourage anyone to NOT wear a helmet during a ride)
My legal team advised me to add the above.
:-)

Gotta go and earn some money,
Rick

RATL #2

Soooo how did it go you may ask.....he's how I did and how John did.

Actually it went well, could have been way better though. Huge update of photos in my FLICKR account; Michelle S. took the photos of the Jrs/CAT V/Womens/CAT IV & some masters...I'll organized it better soon.

Nice job Paul M/Mike N/Matt O for placing....more details/photos later.

I really don't have much else to say about the race. Nice individual job(s) by Matt O getting 4th and for Matt & Gary taking primes. I'll never understand why we lined up to pull on the first lap....and then failed to do the same when we really needed to.

Caio,
Rick

RATL #1 - The R3 gets scratched

I gotta admit that I was pretty wound up about the first race of the season for me. RATL is pretty much a Crit and I like that style of racing. The weather was perfect and turnout was great.

SBR had a good showing of members out; many new members had come out and we are still getting used to each other racing. The team practice(s) should help.
Paul M was going to race Jrs, Angie R was racing women's, Mike N., Michael L & David T were doing CAT V; Jimmy, Matt O, Steve H, JV, Gary, Jason & I the IVs Dr John & Tim F the Masters; and Tom K with David S the 1,2 & 3s.

While I was warming up, I managed to snap a few photos (many, many more are my FLICKR site if you'd like).

The CAT IVs lined up and the Spin riders have been in a huddle on the opposite side with Greg J with them. I just laughed when he said he was a CAT IV....the guy is hell on wheels but is legit as least until he wins or gets enough points to move up. I announce to the group pointing at Greg that "this is the guy to watch". I'm thinking I'll be lucky to stay on let alone finish strong, but as soon as the race starts, I'm feeling pretty good. Spin is sending riders off the front like every 2 minutes and I can tell SBR guys are not as fit as the Spin guys. No worries, it's the start of the season and we have a bunch of new folks. Well, Greg and other Spin riders take off and I chase them down, like twice and Gary does once along with Jason once as did Matt & Steve I think. We are 11 miles into the race and we are coming down the hill and I'm moving up after recovering and am on the outside right when a Summit guys comes into me (yes he came over, not the other way around) and I yell and hold my line and shoulder him off of me. I didn't realize that Gary was on the other side of him and when the guy came over to him he had to do the same thing. Well, the guy pinballs back into me and this time his wheel and handlebars gets locked into mine and it's game over. I hit the ground and look back to see if anyone is going to be running over me and tuck into the "Fetal Position". Nobody does and I jump up grab my bike give it a quick look and try to untangle his bike off of mine. His wheel is taco'd and handlebars are locked into mine....a guy from Spin (Craig?)(sorry forgot his name) was there and kept saying to slow down and check myself for anything broken. I'm pumped up and just wanting to get back on the bike and back on the peloton. I straighten out the shift levers and get going. I reach the main straight away area where most of the people are at and swearing up a storm for getting what looks to be dropped by the group now. (I'm sorry for the bad language...my son and other kids were around).
I'm hoping the group sits up for some reason....but I can see them almost 1/2 a lap up the road. I spend the next 4 laps trying not to get lapped by the field but on the bell lap they come around me and I just try to keep them in sight.
Overall, I'm sore today, but real lucky that the bike came out with only a few scratches; I sacrificed my body for the bike....
:-)
Not the way I wanted to start the race season, but it could have been much worse for me and my bike. The Summit guy looked OK (according to the EMT dude) and it's too bad about his wheel.
Thanks to all of the medical staff at SBR for the Advil and etc....

caio,
Rick

Spin Ride Weds & Recovery Ride Thursday

Decided to do the A Group Spin ride Weds and the group put in a spirited 40 or so at a pretty good pace and I only got dropped with about 3 miles or so to go. I showed close to 23 mph avg. Good seeing the guys I used to ride with all of the time when I lived in Lakewood.



So after that, I decided to do an EN ride with Anna & Gary. Great weather, tunes and didn't get crazy....jeese, my legs were tired. Ran into Juan who used to race with me on the Windchill team and we got caught up with what was going on with each other. Good luck racing MTB for Solon this year, Juan!

Gary took his route home and Anna & I made it back just before it was getting dark. Rest day today for me and then RATL tomorrow. YIKES.

Nite,
Rick

Westlake B Race

SBR had a lot of guys out: Tom & Chris in the As and Mike N, Ian, Michael, JV, Matt & I in the Bs.
As normal, I get there late and no warm up. Nice.
Ride the parade lap and there is a 1pt prime for the 1st race lap...I'm telling myself to warmup b/f doing anything...until I got antsy and went for the heck of it waaaaay out. Got the prime and decided to try to get a workout in. All the guys did well but with the new members, we didn't really work well together but we haven't ridden with each other much in this environment either.
Rick Bennett went away for quite some time and I went out to chase him in....brought a couple of guys with me and we then didn't exploit the gap. Sigh.

On the positive side JV did a great job bagging 3rd place and most of our guys won a prime. Nice job!

My avg speed was 22.8 and the As were 26. 'Nuf said.
It was great seeing all of the gang....it seems like it has been forever.
Well, the tubies and the R3 were great....I'm happy with the setup I have on it now (pictures later).
It was a good wakeup call for me.

See everyone at RATL.

Nite,
Rick

Cincy Weds & then 29 on Saturday with Gary

Cincy was fantastic, Warm, sunny and next to my hotel was a park that had great climbing and great views. First time I had a big smile on my face for some time. Was also able to do a short ride while in Louisville before a conference....

Then, back home...man did the weather change.

It was ok.....good to ride with Gary, the poor guy is still coming off of the flu so was weak, but was riding.
Cold/rainy but got some miles in.
Yeah, I'm so pumped up for the season. HA!
Supposed to be sunny this week....Westlake on Tuesday for my first time at speed with the Cervelo.

The Weekend

Great weather & even though I had my boy with me this weekend, I did make it out for a short ride Saturday and a ride Sunday. Tim Fortner and Michael went out with me on Sunday for a ride through Peninsula and a short stop at the Fast Track office where Anna was working and getting a ride in also. Roughly 20 on Sat & 30 on Sun, then went for a walk with my son and cooke.
I'll be in Louisville all week on business so I'll be missing the start up of the Worlds and may miss the first covered bridge race.

Have a great week.
Rick