Balderdash for April 16, 2010
Rolling up to Week No. 7 of road racing in NYC …
But wasn’t Paris-Roubaix the most boring in years? I mean, Cancellara was awesome, as was Cervelo Test Team, but, um, kinda not very exciting. Almost an afterthought coming a week after the battle at Flanders, which was much more to my liking. Still, cool to see Roger Hammond grab fourth from Boonen. Not that I don’t like Big Tom, but Hammond seemed to want it more.
And kudos we give to Farrar for his awesome, well-timed sprint in the midweek miniclassic Scheldeprijs. He’s starting to live up to the media hype that has utterly overrated his talent for a year or two now, in my opinion. I hope he continues to prove me wrong, though. I really do.
But more important there was the great ride by Greg Donovan of Kissena at Battenkill. What a first race to win!
As for my more modest ride upstate, I had a wonderful time. The scenery was spectacular, as was the weather. Sunny and dry all day. Battenkill as a race just plain rocked. My first time there, I felt good except for on the climbs. Ha ha ha. There were a few. On the five or so major climbs, I rode in the lead chase group after Greg broke away as well as most did, save for one of the first three (cannot recall which) when I was going backward … but still hung on and was happy to be in the company of several mountain goats.
Then, on the very last part of the last climb, I ever so softly fell off the back of the lead chase group, just enough so to have a 30-second or so gap open up once back on the flat paved roads into town. I think I’m a good five pounds overweight, maybe seven or eight.
Anyway, I felt very good on the flats and rollers. Even at the end, after the last climb, I was driving my chase group between 26 and 29 mph for the last four miles, organizing them by yelling at them to work, to rotate a paceline, yelling that this was the race, that we had to catch the group ahead for a chance to place. Five or so worked with me and a few sat in, either cooked or hiding for the sprint, and we brought the gap down to 15 by the finish line.
Seems everyone and their mother was confused by the run-in into town and where the finish line was. I can’t believe they didn’t have a huge overhead banner or something for such a big race. Just some little flags and cones on the side of the road? A fly in the otherwise creamy white B-kill ointment.
Anyway, I was able to do a 75-percent effort of a sprint and beat my group easily, and I felt relatively fresh. Everyone was saying how toast they were, but I felt good still. So I guess I wish the finish was not five miles or so after the last climb but more like 10. Maybe then I could have caught the main lead group and sprinted to a good place. Who knows. So ended up 13th, 15 secs behind the leaders and 1:45 behind Greg Donovan, the solo-breakaway winner of some delish chocolate milk. I was happy I could ride no farther than 10 wheels back the whole race, help Greg by patrolling front with other teammates, chase down bridge attempts, and be fresh at the end.
I was not happy with my climbing, though. Maybe if I focus on it some more I can do better. My coach thinks so, it seems. But I think I could benefit too by losing five or so. Anyway, this time last year I had not even raced yet and was 25 pounds heavier. Now I’ve done 10 races and feel great. We’ll see what happens in April and May now. I think I may get much better results in crits and such. But still open to doing all kinds of races, including Bear and Housatonic Hills. Heaven help me.
Then there was the Dana Point criterium. Fucked up, right? It appears Jake Keough intentionally crashed out Bahati. (Video here.) Are you kidding me? Sure, there have been infamous cases where riders have crashed out other riders before, but today with every moment of pro races being filmed, photographed, analyzed, YouTubed, Facebooked, tweeted, and e-mailed, well, it just seems crazy to crash someone out, not to mention seriously risking dangerous, career- and life-threatening injury to other riders and yourself. Oh, it’s a tad unsporting, too. Like, what a tactic!
Dunno about you, but if someone crashed me out, there would not be talking after the race. Someone attempts to cut you out of the race, out of the season and possibly out of your life, there’s going to be payback.
Here’s a post about the whole deal.
Less dramatically, this weekend I’m racing Floyd Bennett Field on Saturday in the 4s and doing, or trying to do, two races at Bethel in the 4s and 3/4s on Sunday.
Ride safe, race smart, and compete fair.
Amstel? Well, maybe one of the Schlecks.
