Salida Report

Had a super fun weekend these past few days (photos soon). Juice, Ram, Rob, Jonboy, myself, Jeremy, Tim, Ertzie Von Ertzington, and Jon's buddy Sean all rented a pad up in Salida. The Rio Perdido. 10 dudes in an 800 sq ft house makes you appreciate fresh air and space. We had a killer time exchanging stories. However...onto the real stuff!

Time Trial - 4th place. 2 seconds off the podium! Argh! I wanted some hardware!!! Either way, I raced this as if my chamois were on fire. I freaking gave it 100000%. The results show! Felt grrrrrrrrrrrreat. I couldn't believe how good I felt during that TT. The BEST part was as soon as the mental stress started coming on, I was able to use some techiniques to punch it in the face. Couldn't sleep a wink I was so wired :-).

Road Race - Yeaouch. I woke up feeling like I just got shot out of a hippos ass. The neutral rollout was very hard :-s. That was a sign that this was going to be one of those really long "short days". We staged, the gun went and people just DRILLED it. I sat in on the group, but man my legs were absolutely toasted. I could barely stay IN the group on the stretch of 50. In about 12 minutes I was off the back and on my own. I was going to turn around and head back, but decided to just do a lap because I wanted to experience the punch in the face that it is. So, I went back and recovered after 1 lap. It was 108 degrees or something when we started. No biggie on this one. I can safely say that unless I get down to UNDER 150lbs that race is off my calendar for good :-).

Crit - LIned up for this. FIRED UP TO THE GILLS. I was talking to my buddy Casey (he won Hugo) and told him man, I got freshies, so let's sit in since Hart is going to protect their guy in GC, and go on like 2-3 laps to go. He said alrighty...I'm with you. So you can see I lined up with the intention of literally torching everyone. I could FEEEEEL it. Rode the first 25 minutes smart. Sat up front, not on the front. However, on about 7 laps left, I scraped a pedal on a REALLY bad line going onto the very backstretch that paralleled the finishing straight. That kicked me off to the side a bit and affected my ability to accelerate within the group. Thus, I drifted back. NO PANIC. Just regained composure and shot back up. DId it again in the 1st right turn at the park. WTF! Again...mild panic...more frustration. Finally, I did it again on the shitty line that I picked the first time and I just lost positioning out of the group...period. I busted my ass to get back on, buit to no avail. I am very disappointed in this DNF. THE WORST...and I mean THE ABSOLUTE WORST part of this is that Casey won on a solo breakaway on 2 laps to go. Haarrrummphhh >:-|

My fitness was there, the mental toughness was there, and the focus was there. However, the cumulation of these 3 seconds of mis calculation (1s per pedal scrap) was the end of my day. VERY disappointed. It's hard to explain why this was happening, but I think the culprit was me not using a big enough gear coming out of the corner, or, not waiting a split second longer through the apex to start pedaling.

However, we were successful on Friday, which is great. I am happy about that. I felt like a made a major breakthrough with my mental "struggling" when the time came for pain. So, chalk one up for the little guy.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR...almost identical results at the Omnium. In fact, last years were kinda worse. However, I reacted with a 6th place at the Fed Center, and an Almost got it at Bannock. Well lookie what's up on the calendar for next weekend!! Coincidence?!?!!? :-)