multiple stages of screwing up. owasco.

Friday: First massage I have ever gotten. I didnt realize how much there was to this. I mean, what do I wear? How do I get undressed. What if she goes for the release? So I get there and figure she will tell me what to do and she just says "get comfortable".. What the hell does that mean? So I just laid on the table above the sheets in my underwear. I had a clean pair that dont have giant holes (for those of you not in the know, "cheap" boxer briefs are up around 2.50-3.00 a pair).. Well it felt good regardless of me not knowing the formalities.

We packed up the car with all of our junk and set of. 5.5 hours. Mike Stubna is the first person I have ever seen haggle at a sbarro on highway and get 5 bucks off his meal. "that is too much I cant pay that much"... "ok is this better?"

Got to our host housing and hung with the dudes. Half of the team went to the "the crumbling of Mt Holly" for the weekend and half went to NY.

Sat:Pouring rain. Pancakes and an "Americano" at Wegmans grocery store.
Lets just say that I am so good at time trialing that I had to show up over a minute late to even the score some. Ok real story, im a pussy and didnt want to get wet, so I put of leaving the house as long as I could and got lost along the way. Im a douchebag. Pouring rain, couldnt see, went slow despite massive aero gear.
It cleared up for the circuit race. 21 miles. Brutal 21 miles. Sprints along the way, 1 field split. I managed to hang on for dear life pushing my 50x12. Spinning anybody? Last lap I gave a half hearted attack after the climb and got a good spot for the leadout. We rivaled the Rite Aid train some and managed to get Geronimo a good spot in the sprint, but he was blocked and got a bitter sweet 3rd. He thought he could win, but was happy with a podium spot.

Sunday: went with the percolator. Giant bowl of raw oats. Stubna bought soy milk and blueberries. sweet. Bagel and Peanutbutter too!!!
Brutal road race. Walters vs. Bell from rite aid battle for the yellow. Me sitting in 25th 5 minutes down on GC. I liked the ohio stage race better with a 4 mile TT where I only lost 40 seconds! 2nd KOM field split into 3 or 4 groups and rite aid chased down the yellow jersey. Stubna and I aided some. Geronimo said they were getting some flack for not helping chase our group but was like "these guys work their butts off for us in crits all year, we want them to have their chance." Yeah, sitting dead last holding on for dear life with my eyes crossed really helped them a bunch I bet. haha. When the got to us, they chased the 2 man group up the road really hard, hoping to bring it back.
Anyway, when Walters went, I was supposed to go with him. Easier said than done. The start of the KOM was right after a sprint and I was way far back, I tried getting up to him and another guy on the climb, but couldnt. I stayed with that group and geronimo get 5th, winning the field. We caught a group of 3's with like 500 meters to go. I could have done better in the field sprint (up a hill) but I got boxed out by a bunch of cat 3's sprinting for 43rd or whatever.
Oh this was awesome, one of the 3's that got messed up in his spring raced for "organic athlete" and it says "go vegan" across his ass and all this. He is freaking out and trying to fight some dude after the race. Burn on bro, eat some tofu or something, but come on.
The way home Denny used his UCI chauffeurs license to get the "road warrior" discount at sbarro. All "professional drivers" get a discount. haha. awesome.
Props to : Zac Bell for chasing his heart out. Denny D for driving 11 hours to watch us and give us bottles. Stubna for yelling at me and buying soy milk and blueberries. Geronimo for sprinting with the sprinters and climbing with the climbers, then doing the full toona race. the rest of the team for actually being fun guys to eat and hangout with as well as racing with.

Nationals

When people ask me if I am racing Nationals this year (which are an hour away from Pittsburgh) I say "Im either too young or too slow.".. meaning not a master and not a Cat 1. Today I wished I was 3 years younger while I sat in the COM car behind the race. Sweet position.

Observations:
The Nat Comm knew way more about bike racing than me, despite having never raced. One time up the climb, she said "why are they not climbing in the shade, the whole road is open?" ... and eventually they did.

A 140 man peloton is giant vortex of piss, garbage and bottles. When the field was mostly together, they were lucky to go 200 meters without a wrapper, bottle or urine spitting out of the group. I wonder why people dont want bike races in their neighborhoods?

That course is freaking brutal. My job was to write down the numbers of the riders as they got dropped. I wrote down like 120 numbers.

Standout performances so far: Bart Torre for trying to bridge the 6 (yes six) minute gap to the 3 leaders (winning move) and sitting around 2 minutes back for like 30 miles.

alvaro arnal 4th in the TT. gnarly.