By Kendi "OMG stage racing" Thomas
Based on the Omnium at Collegiate Nationals, I have the incredible opportunity to race for the Ryan Collegiate All-Stars Team at Nature Valley Grand Prix. The Ryan team is made up of 7 collegiate riders from all over the country and half the women who have ridden for the team have received pro contracts. It's cool. Really cool. We get the celeb treatment, for sure. For example, yesterday we went to a St. Paul Saints baseball game, decked out in gear, with our bikes and handed out trading cards (yeah I said TRADING CARDS) and Nature Valley bars. A few of us even got to ride around the field after first inning behind the Saints' mascot, the pig, on a 4-wheeler (I don't know either) and wave at the crowd. Then this morning Sinead Miller (Division I Criterium Champ and Marian College student) and I did a few radio interviews on the phone. Tomorrow we're even doing a television interview! Hopefully I will erase any goofy smiles that I may or may not have had in previous interviews. The great part is, though, that I get to wear my Whitman jersey with Ryan shorts. So I'll be representing the team!
So I'm in Minneapolis right now, sitting at our director's house, playing scrabble, cuddling with the first standard poodle I've ever met (it's not shaved or anything, don't worry) and hoping to GOD that I don't disappoint my soon-arriving family by being pulled from the race. I'm feeling good though. We prerode the TT course a few hours ago, which is the first stage of six. Then tomorrow night is the first crit in Uptown St. Paul. Should be exciting! I'll be twittering and blogging on my own blog, so be sure to cheer from afar!
Tuesday, June 9
Monday, June 8
Bounced checks
So back home in New England, it's been a not too shabby first few weekends of racing.
First up was the Tour of Connecticut, a little stage race that looked to not be too hard, but then all of the New England elite squads showed up with full teams. Long story short, it went well, I ended up 17th and the road race was hard.
And I almost forgot to mention how much 5 hour training rides suck when they're in 49 degree steady rain instead of 75 degree sun.
And back to the racing... last weekend was the Auburn, ME weekend. All was looking good until none other than New England (and what's more, NEW HAMPSHIRE) homeboy Ted King, fresh off his first Grand Tour last week when he finished the Giro right in the middle of the field, decided to gate crash our little race.
Tactics were pretty straightforward: be in the break, so when Teddy bridges up you're already up in the break. I was in a few promising moves that didn't stick, but missed the move of the day. While covering stuff, I ended up at the front at the top of the main climb when Ted decided to start playing. Myself and one other guy managed to get onto his wheel before he clicked it into Real Legit Pro Gear (several clicks up from the dreaded Pro Gear that signifies that upshift the pros make that amateurs can't follow). And then the two of us held on for dear life as he just brought it up to 35... for a long time. And then 45+ on a little downhill. We brought the break from not in sight to about 50m back in maybe 4-5 minutes. So after this downhill there's one really short tough kicker, 30 seconds of pain, and Ted notifies us we'll need to give 'er up this kicker to get to the break. Both of us sort of swallow some vomit and get ready. Somehow we held his wheel up the kicker and around the chicane at the top. At this point, we've caught 2 guys (including Ted's brother, Robbie) just behind the break who were bridging up, and are probably 15 meters behind the break. Ted just keeps accelerating up to the group with Robbie and the rest of us can't go harder (on the flat). We got dropped (after the hill, on the flat) and watched the King brothers ride up the break and start rotating, we chased for a short while before blowing sky high. I ended up in the main field, took about an hour to recover and when moved up from last wheel I realized there were now 15+ guys up the road and just rode tempo at the front to get the race finished up with. Ted and Robbie rode away from the break and finished something like 3.5 minutes ahead of 3rd place. So that is my story of the Ted King Express and how I'd like to be able to ride it but it's actually too fast for me. It's like trying to play with the school star in gym class but he smashes you into the pain locker and locks you in there, so you're suffering in the locker room before the game even starts.
The next day in the crit I was in a 3 man break for about half the race, then was dropped from the break, then was off the front with a teammate from 7 to go (he got 3rd, I was 5th). So even though we salvaged the situation that was the second time in two days my enthusiasm wrote a check my legs couldn't cash. Lessons learned (?) and lots more good racing to be had this summer.
First up was the Tour of Connecticut, a little stage race that looked to not be too hard, but then all of the New England elite squads showed up with full teams. Long story short, it went well, I ended up 17th and the road race was hard.
And I almost forgot to mention how much 5 hour training rides suck when they're in 49 degree steady rain instead of 75 degree sun.
And back to the racing... last weekend was the Auburn, ME weekend. All was looking good until none other than New England (and what's more, NEW HAMPSHIRE) homeboy Ted King, fresh off his first Grand Tour last week when he finished the Giro right in the middle of the field, decided to gate crash our little race.
Tactics were pretty straightforward: be in the break, so when Teddy bridges up you're already up in the break. I was in a few promising moves that didn't stick, but missed the move of the day. While covering stuff, I ended up at the front at the top of the main climb when Ted decided to start playing. Myself and one other guy managed to get onto his wheel before he clicked it into Real Legit Pro Gear (several clicks up from the dreaded Pro Gear that signifies that upshift the pros make that amateurs can't follow). And then the two of us held on for dear life as he just brought it up to 35... for a long time. And then 45+ on a little downhill. We brought the break from not in sight to about 50m back in maybe 4-5 minutes. So after this downhill there's one really short tough kicker, 30 seconds of pain, and Ted notifies us we'll need to give 'er up this kicker to get to the break. Both of us sort of swallow some vomit and get ready. Somehow we held his wheel up the kicker and around the chicane at the top. At this point, we've caught 2 guys (including Ted's brother, Robbie) just behind the break who were bridging up, and are probably 15 meters behind the break. Ted just keeps accelerating up to the group with Robbie and the rest of us can't go harder (on the flat). We got dropped (after the hill, on the flat) and watched the King brothers ride up the break and start rotating, we chased for a short while before blowing sky high. I ended up in the main field, took about an hour to recover and when moved up from last wheel I realized there were now 15+ guys up the road and just rode tempo at the front to get the race finished up with. Ted and Robbie rode away from the break and finished something like 3.5 minutes ahead of 3rd place. So that is my story of the Ted King Express and how I'd like to be able to ride it but it's actually too fast for me. It's like trying to play with the school star in gym class but he smashes you into the pain locker and locks you in there, so you're suffering in the locker room before the game even starts.
The next day in the crit I was in a 3 man break for about half the race, then was dropped from the break, then was off the front with a teammate from 7 to go (he got 3rd, I was 5th). So even though we salvaged the situation that was the second time in two days my enthusiasm wrote a check my legs couldn't cash. Lessons learned (?) and lots more good racing to be had this summer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)