Giro di San Francisco
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Originally uploaded by johnny72k.
So I'm pretty embarrassed to say it, but I got my butt kicked yesterday. no training, no sleep, no diet = no result. go figure. ah well, things could be a lot worse, I've been having a blast being a dad and things are starting to settle down a bit now with Travis sleeping longer on his own and stuff now, so I'm sure once we get through the move and stuff, I'll be able to get back into a bit of a rhthym and get training again. I simply can't compete with the best riders in the country on my current level of training...
yea so a bunch of pros did stay around from the Grand PrixSF for yesterdays crit. Health Net, Subway, Aerospace, Webcor, Kodak/Sierra Nevada, McGuire, etc. were all represented, no big euro guys, but still a stacked field and with the legendary swirling San Francisco winds, it made for quite a hard race. I got a good start and spend 5-10 laps right at the front of the field, then I remembered I'm not superman, so I chilled and spent a few laps in the middle of the field, and then came the pain and I was in survival mode counting down the 50 laps (40 miles) til the finish. I was in major suffering mode everytime I looked at my heart rate it was over 200, usually between 205 and 209. Nonetheless, I still had it in my head to make it to the finish, but at 14 to go, somebody flipped the switch and my legs were done... just like that. I had spend just over an hour with my heart rate above 200 so I think my body had had enough and just shut off! purely due to lack of training I'm sure, just need to get in the mileage to compete at this level...
posted by Johnny K @ 8:00 AM
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1 Comments:
my teammate Dennis's take on the race:
Woke up yesterday eager to get up and going for my race day ritual. I decided that the Giro would be my last race of the 05 season and was feeling good about going out and having fun. Had my entire family coming with me so I knew I should put on a good show for the Hopp Klan.
Got to the city on a beautiful day! Picturesque day that would do any postcard justice! This year not too many people were there watching, might be because the Grand Prix was the day before. Nevertheless I walked to get my race number. We had a full field of 140 riders with about 10 on the wait list! WOW I guess guys want to race hey! My goal was to just have fun and race hard till I blow. I have not raced since Timpani so I was not sure how the legs would go.
We had a slight delay for the start of our race, over 30 minutes, the Women's race had a serious crash. I was glad, I needed the extra time to really get the legs going. John Knotts was there and we had a few minutes to chat and ride a few miles to keep the legs going. After a nice long warm up, I went to the S/F line and made my way to the front, got lucky there! I was right in front with my tires on the line! A few instructions and we were off. I immediately went to the front and was mixing it up with Sayers of HelthNet! He attacked hard right from the gun and I went with him! For the first few laps he kept the pressure on with Monniger counter attacking. I was right there feeling very good. Not much of a snap but (30 days since my last race) but I was able to keep the high speed not problem. About 15 laps or so I settled into about 20th position and had not problem just sitting there. A few more attacks from Maguire, Sierra/Ofoto etc. I went with several of them just following the wheels. about 18 laps into the race I went to the inside of the climb and a A/V rider decided that he wanted to try to squeeze into the inside. He ended up colliding with another and down they went causing me to hit the curb and fall over. I was not affected but my front tire blew and I had to soft ride it back to the pits.
Now it is always very interesting when you get a free lap...why? Because no matter what you say to the official "Hey Barry I was about 20 deep when I was forced to come into the pits for a free lap!" "What do you mean push me back in the back of the pack!" Yup part one of my long day! As the pack went flying by they put me dead last going into the left turn. 139 riders in front of me going 35MPH! Well it took me 15 laps to gradually make my way back up to where I was.
Just as I settled back in the sweet spot, we came into the climb and I hit the one huge pot hole just before the bridge. BLAM!!!! Rear wheel out of true and I heard the PSSSSSS of a tire going flat! Okay back I went to the pits! Pleaded my case again and as they laughed, back to the back of the pack I was pushed! AGAIN! This is ridiculous! All of that hard work and I have to race flat out to get back into contention! A rather good break away was off I was was sitting punching tickets at 33mph taking all kinds of risks and railing it to get up in the front again! With 20 laps to go it was not going to be easy! I made it back up with 10 to go but wasted myself in the process. I never saw less than 29.5mph the entire race so you can imagine what it took for me to get back up there. With about 5 to go we were within 9 seconds off the break and we were going faster and faster. The last 5 laps my speedometer was at 34.5mph! A crash in the front split the field in two. I was cramping and at 100% just staying attached.
I ended up blowing my wad on the last climb and was out of contention. I rolled in behind the sprint and was happy to finish, hey without a team and the bad luck I had...It was okay! Best thing was seeing my daughter run up to me excited saying "Daddy!" my bad day did not matter after that! She was so happy to just see me race! My entire family congratulated me for keeping my composure and doing what I did. We race so many races through the season. For me I have 2 races that my family comes out to watch and it is always enjoyable to see them excited for me to compete against the big pro teams and race hard with a smile on my face!
Now it is the official off season for me. At time to reflect and look forward to next season.
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