Ouch!

Picture of the Day...
Ouch! this is no way to finish a race! A 45+ cyclist face plants while racing in the 44th Manhattan Beach Grand Prix in California over the weekend. for full race story, click this post's title






Saturday's ride
A nice day, if you like riding your bike in hell. By that I mean it was HOT, HOT, HOT. But I guess we've all become accustom to hot days in the saddle...or at least we've come to accept the hot days in the saddle.

Our ride was graced by Rebecca Larson, who is back from a busy season of racing professionally with the Colavita/Cooking Light cycling team. Rebecca recently placed 6th against the best in America at the 2005 U.S. Elite National Road Race Championships.


Another odd ride as there were attacks prior to the rest stop. I'm not sure what the catalyst was, but never-the-less, we were tearing down 441 in High Springs at 28-30 mph for the final eight miles before we stopped to refuel. At one point there was an effort to slow things down, but Lambert attacked again bringing the speed back up to 30 mph. With about three or four miles before the break, I got gapped when someone about 4 places in front of me sat up. When nobody tried to close the gap I sprinted back up to the end of the remaining cyclists at 35 mph. Needless to say, I was happy to get to the gas station and attempt to cool down.

There was talk of keeping the ride civil on the way home due to the frenetic pace up to that point...and for the first 3 miles it was. But just as I was rotating back to the rear, there was an acceleration at the front. I was now looking at having to chase up to the group AGAIN. I upped my pace and still wasn't closing on them, so after looking behind me and seeing that nobody was coming with I jumped out of the saddle and sprinted again up to the lead group. A few more did eventually bridge the gap as well, but that settled the lead group for the remainder of the ride.

I was unfortunately at the front of the group as we began to climb Chestnut Hill. I tried to a set a pace high-enough so as to deter the masochistic hammerheads from sprinting up to the top. Half-way up, I ran out of gas and watched as half of the group floated past me. Knowing that this was going to be THE move, I wrecked myself to maintain contact with them as we crested the hill and began the descent. I thought the lactic acid in my legs was going to burn through my shorts...but I held on.

At this point there were just 8 of us: Rebecca L., Danny M., Brett M., Jayson O., Mike R., Ira T., Naked Ed and Myself. Ed pulled off for a nature break just as we turned onto Millhopper, I guess when you gotta go, you gotta GO! I was thankful that nobody attacked over the I-75 overpass, cause I would have surely burst into flames right there on the side of the road. However, shortly after all the climbing was behind us, Jayson smartly attacked and caught our tired group off gaurd. Rebecca and Mike R. were the only ones to chase him down and the rest of us half-heartedly tried to maintain a high pace with the dream that they would come back to us.

We kept the 3 leaders within a hundred yards, but that was as close as they would get. Brett came to the front and put in a good chase at 28 mph but when he pulled off none of us could maintain it...thus ending our ride for the day. Apparently Mike didn't contest the sprint, and Rebecca was unsure of the sprint sign, but even with Jayson's great attack in the closing miles, my bet is that Rebecca was still the best on the day.

RESULTS:
1) Jayson O'Mahoney........
2) Rebecca Larson............ s.t.
3) Mike Robinson............. s.t.
4) Brett Miller................... 00:37
5) Danny Muehlschlegel... s.t.
6) Paul Messal.................. s.t.
7) Ira Thorpe.................... s.t.

***final results are based on hearsay and post-ride BS. They are in NO way "official". Readers should not attempt to refute these results as the editorial staff had basically made them up. Thank-you for reading.

As far as sunday goes...
I 86'd the GCC ride and took my wife, Jen, out to San Felaso for some leisurely mountain biking. This was my first time out on the fat tires in quite a while and the first time my wife had been on any kind of bike in even longer.

The heat and gradual climbs on the unshaded single-track sections quickly got the best of Jen and we cut the ride short and headed back for the parking lot. I still managed to wipe out while trying to be Billy-bad-a** on the power-line trail descent. A couple of scratches, some sore muscles and a bruised shin (and ego), but nothing major. I think we'll try it again next saturday, hopefully with better results.