Running low on battery here and forgot the charger at home, so this will be brief. The Road Race had a lot of horsepower in it today, but many were riding defensively since they knew the afternoon Time Trial would completely reshuffle the results. There were a number of strong attacks, but nothing was sustained long enough and there were always enough people back in the pack to chase them down, so at the end it came down to a big pack sprint. The last few miles have a few climbs and the finish 500m is mostly uphill, so things broke up a bit. About a kilo before the finish there was a crash in front of me that required a lot of body english to avoid. Somebody crossed wheels with Jay S and went down right in front of me, but luckily I was able to get around him on the left. Shortly after that I Jaro came blasting up the right side, partly in the gravel, as the sprint started to wind up. He ended up 3rd! There were a lot of fresh legs that showed up for the sprint. I ended up 6th, I think, so pack time and no bonus, however the climb created enough of a split that most of the back part of the pack didn't get the same time as the top dozen or so. The evening TT didn't go well for me at all, not that I was too surprised. I did a 9:14 for the 4 miler, but my 30-second man caught me. I can't say that I put 100% into it, really, but even if I had I probably would have picked up only a couple of places. The top time of the day was in the Cat. 1,2,3 race and was an 8:02 by Bain Foote, so basically there were a few people who took over a minute out of me in 4 miles. I think I was around 12th or so in the TT. On GC, I'm at 10th going in to the circuit race tomorrow. Tomorrow's circuit race should be pretty interesting because there are a few people in the 2nd through 5th place spots that are really close. That means that the hot spot at the mid-way point will be hotly contested, as will the finish of course. I really don't have much of a game plan other than to maybe support Charlie who is in 9th if he is looking good. I'm not too interested in trying to defend 10th place, so maybe I'll just lay it all on the line and see if I can make something happen. We'll just have to wait and see how the legs are in the morning.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
MS Gran Prix, Day 1
Running low on battery here and forgot the charger at home, so this will be brief. The Road Race had a lot of horsepower in it today, but many were riding defensively since they knew the afternoon Time Trial would completely reshuffle the results. There were a number of strong attacks, but nothing was sustained long enough and there were always enough people back in the pack to chase them down, so at the end it came down to a big pack sprint. The last few miles have a few climbs and the finish 500m is mostly uphill, so things broke up a bit. About a kilo before the finish there was a crash in front of me that required a lot of body english to avoid. Somebody crossed wheels with Jay S and went down right in front of me, but luckily I was able to get around him on the left. Shortly after that I Jaro came blasting up the right side, partly in the gravel, as the sprint started to wind up. He ended up 3rd! There were a lot of fresh legs that showed up for the sprint. I ended up 6th, I think, so pack time and no bonus, however the climb created enough of a split that most of the back part of the pack didn't get the same time as the top dozen or so. The evening TT didn't go well for me at all, not that I was too surprised. I did a 9:14 for the 4 miler, but my 30-second man caught me. I can't say that I put 100% into it, really, but even if I had I probably would have picked up only a couple of places. The top time of the day was in the Cat. 1,2,3 race and was an 8:02 by Bain Foote, so basically there were a few people who took over a minute out of me in 4 miles. I think I was around 12th or so in the TT. On GC, I'm at 10th going in to the circuit race tomorrow. Tomorrow's circuit race should be pretty interesting because there are a few people in the 2nd through 5th place spots that are really close. That means that the hot spot at the mid-way point will be hotly contested, as will the finish of course. I really don't have much of a game plan other than to maybe support Charlie who is in 9th if he is looking good. I'm not too interested in trying to defend 10th place, so maybe I'll just lay it all on the line and see if I can make something happen. We'll just have to wait and see how the legs are in the morning.
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2 comments:
Holy cow! That guy is all gear'd out!! TT helmet, full disc rear wheel, shoe covers... the whole shebang! Envy. Give me toys. I might be slow, but it'd look cool!
Yeah, it's hard to get excited about doing a TT when my TT bike is my road bike with clip-ons and no water bottles!
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