Recovering and racing bicycles...
Recovering and racing…
This weekend was the annual suffer fest known as The Meadowmont Criterium in Chapel Hill. For those of you who don’t know about Meadowmont, Meadowmont is a planned community. It is set in Chapel Hill, but the general plan of it is that you can walk to everything you need to get to in this little setting. There are shops, restaurants, grocery stores, bike and running paths, and essentially everything you need right near where you’re living. So it’s a nice little planned community like that. Once a year, they open up a few streets to us to race our bikes on. It’s actually a great venue, because the people who live around the route of the race actually support it really well. They’re all out there in their driveways cooking out, drinking beer, and cheering on everyone as they ride around the course. They really do support it, which is great, because it’s a great place to race. I think it’s also one of the more challenging criterium courses on the schedule. I say this because on the backside of the course, there are 2 hills in succession. The first one is fairly steep, but you get a good run at it coming into it. Once you crest the top of the first hill, there is a short drop and a sweeping turn and then you come into the 2nd hill, which I think is a lot worse than the first. It’s a little longer, and it seems steeper towards the top of it. On the run in coming into the 2nd hill, you’re doing 30-31 MPH. As you crest the top of it, our speeds were regularly around 13 MPH. So you could see how that would hurt you. Once you get to the top of the 2nd hill though, it’s a downhill run into the start finish line, and then more downhill into turn 1 of the course. I am a firm believer that turn #1 of this particular race course is the best turn #1 going. You hit it at around 35 MPH or higher, and you can just carve around the turn, carry your speed, and blast through the straightaway that comes after turn #1. The problem with the straightaway after turn #1 is that this weekend, there was a stiff headwind blowing into the peloton. This made for some hard racing this weekend, and you could tell, as the group was generally single file for a lot of the race. The speeds and pace were high.
The race started this weekend as most races have been starting this year with the Hincapie team going to the front immediately at the start of the race to try and put someone from their team in a breakaway. This didn’t work too well at first, as everyone was kind of feeling out the crowd. Round about the 3rd lap of the race, John Hamblen went around the field, took a few other people with him (group of 6 I believe that it was), and started a breakaway. Since most of the major teams that were in the race were happy with that, they got a gap very quickly, and were never seen again, well, that is until the break group lapped the field with 1 lap to go in the race. So with the breakaway gone up the road, it then became a matter of an internal power struggle with other teams to get someone else up the road and away from the group. With Hincapie having once again about 20 people on the start line, they started doing completely stupid things, such as going to the front of the group, and slamming on their brakes going into the corners, causing gaps to form, and for small groups to be able to get off the front, at which time a concerted chase would begin within the group to re-absorb the 4-6 people who had ridden off the front. I can tell that this is going to be a long season of dealing with the Hincapie team if they keep doing stupid things like this during races. They’re not racing. They’re putting 1 or 2 of their guys in the break group, which is good, but then they’re blocking the front of the race, sitting up in the middle of the pack, slowing down, and causing general negative racing within the group once a break has gone up the road. That’s not good racing, and they’re quickly gaining a reputation for stupid racing tactics. The downside to it is that they have so many people on their team, and the people that they do have are strong enough to keep doing these things week in and week out, and a guy like me who might only have 1 or 2 teammates at best in a race, can’t do anything about, and most times the larger teams can’t do anything about it either. It’s frustrating. The only thing I can do is to work to get into the breakaways with their guys, and then their dumb tactics will work for me as well. Now I just have to be strong enough to get into a breakaway with them. But I digress. All in due time. All in due time.
So anyway, the race progresses. We beat each other mercilessly for the remainder of the time we’re on the course, and the break group comes around, and laps the field. Small groups try to get off, but are always brought back, so that on the last lap, we’re “gruppo compacto”, meaning everyone is together. Chris Harkey goes to the front, and drills it hard as we come through with 1 to go. This shreds the group very nicely. Someone lets a gap open in front of me, and I work to get onto the back of the group. Coming into the hilly section, I’m still with the group, but it’s a long single file line, of which I’m in the middle of it. We roll into the finishing straight, and I’m still in the same position, with essentially no hope of sprinting for a placing for this weekend. I just roll across the finish line with a few other people around me. Pack fill once again this weekend. But that’s OK, considering what happened to me last weekend in Charleston. Let’s just say I signed up to ride in 4 races last weekend, and did not finish (DNF in racing parlance) any of the 4 races. So for me, this was a just a little small personal victory. Hey, baby steps my friends, baby steps. Next weekend, Charlotte and the Dilworth Criterium. Yesterday at the start of the race, it was announced that the South End Criterium was cancelled for this year. That is not so good. I like that race and that course. Unfortunate.
This weekend was the annual suffer fest known as The Meadowmont Criterium in Chapel Hill. For those of you who don’t know about Meadowmont, Meadowmont is a planned community. It is set in Chapel Hill, but the general plan of it is that you can walk to everything you need to get to in this little setting. There are shops, restaurants, grocery stores, bike and running paths, and essentially everything you need right near where you’re living. So it’s a nice little planned community like that. Once a year, they open up a few streets to us to race our bikes on. It’s actually a great venue, because the people who live around the route of the race actually support it really well. They’re all out there in their driveways cooking out, drinking beer, and cheering on everyone as they ride around the course. They really do support it, which is great, because it’s a great place to race. I think it’s also one of the more challenging criterium courses on the schedule. I say this because on the backside of the course, there are 2 hills in succession. The first one is fairly steep, but you get a good run at it coming into it. Once you crest the top of the first hill, there is a short drop and a sweeping turn and then you come into the 2nd hill, which I think is a lot worse than the first. It’s a little longer, and it seems steeper towards the top of it. On the run in coming into the 2nd hill, you’re doing 30-31 MPH. As you crest the top of it, our speeds were regularly around 13 MPH. So you could see how that would hurt you. Once you get to the top of the 2nd hill though, it’s a downhill run into the start finish line, and then more downhill into turn 1 of the course. I am a firm believer that turn #1 of this particular race course is the best turn #1 going. You hit it at around 35 MPH or higher, and you can just carve around the turn, carry your speed, and blast through the straightaway that comes after turn #1. The problem with the straightaway after turn #1 is that this weekend, there was a stiff headwind blowing into the peloton. This made for some hard racing this weekend, and you could tell, as the group was generally single file for a lot of the race. The speeds and pace were high.
The race started this weekend as most races have been starting this year with the Hincapie team going to the front immediately at the start of the race to try and put someone from their team in a breakaway. This didn’t work too well at first, as everyone was kind of feeling out the crowd. Round about the 3rd lap of the race, John Hamblen went around the field, took a few other people with him (group of 6 I believe that it was), and started a breakaway. Since most of the major teams that were in the race were happy with that, they got a gap very quickly, and were never seen again, well, that is until the break group lapped the field with 1 lap to go in the race. So with the breakaway gone up the road, it then became a matter of an internal power struggle with other teams to get someone else up the road and away from the group. With Hincapie having once again about 20 people on the start line, they started doing completely stupid things, such as going to the front of the group, and slamming on their brakes going into the corners, causing gaps to form, and for small groups to be able to get off the front, at which time a concerted chase would begin within the group to re-absorb the 4-6 people who had ridden off the front. I can tell that this is going to be a long season of dealing with the Hincapie team if they keep doing stupid things like this during races. They’re not racing. They’re putting 1 or 2 of their guys in the break group, which is good, but then they’re blocking the front of the race, sitting up in the middle of the pack, slowing down, and causing general negative racing within the group once a break has gone up the road. That’s not good racing, and they’re quickly gaining a reputation for stupid racing tactics. The downside to it is that they have so many people on their team, and the people that they do have are strong enough to keep doing these things week in and week out, and a guy like me who might only have 1 or 2 teammates at best in a race, can’t do anything about, and most times the larger teams can’t do anything about it either. It’s frustrating. The only thing I can do is to work to get into the breakaways with their guys, and then their dumb tactics will work for me as well. Now I just have to be strong enough to get into a breakaway with them. But I digress. All in due time. All in due time.
So anyway, the race progresses. We beat each other mercilessly for the remainder of the time we’re on the course, and the break group comes around, and laps the field. Small groups try to get off, but are always brought back, so that on the last lap, we’re “gruppo compacto”, meaning everyone is together. Chris Harkey goes to the front, and drills it hard as we come through with 1 to go. This shreds the group very nicely. Someone lets a gap open in front of me, and I work to get onto the back of the group. Coming into the hilly section, I’m still with the group, but it’s a long single file line, of which I’m in the middle of it. We roll into the finishing straight, and I’m still in the same position, with essentially no hope of sprinting for a placing for this weekend. I just roll across the finish line with a few other people around me. Pack fill once again this weekend. But that’s OK, considering what happened to me last weekend in Charleston. Let’s just say I signed up to ride in 4 races last weekend, and did not finish (DNF in racing parlance) any of the 4 races. So for me, this was a just a little small personal victory. Hey, baby steps my friends, baby steps. Next weekend, Charlotte and the Dilworth Criterium. Yesterday at the start of the race, it was announced that the South End Criterium was cancelled for this year. That is not so good. I like that race and that course. Unfortunate.
So the recovering part came from drinking wine on Thursday night, and suffering (as mentioned in a previous entry) with the hangover and consequence of that wine drinking throughout the day on Friday. This recovery continued well into Friday afternoon and early evening, and by 8:00 PM on Friday night, I was in bed, sleeping like the dead. Yeah, I know, purely exciting life that this kid leads, in bed at 8:00 PM on a Friday night. Hey, I am getting older, but I did feel so much better on Saturday morning. I remember the good old college days of drinking 1 to 1.5 cases of beer on a Friday night, and then doing it again on Saturday evening. What happened to those days? OK, maybe I don't want those days back again, but the alcohol tolerance was so much better when I got to "practice" a lot.
posted by giantcu92 @ 6:33 AM
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