Mas o Menos

We had an up and down weekend here at the Joe Martin Stage Race. First off, Rich is riding on amazing form right now (any correlation with the arrival of his girlfriend??? You make the call.) He finished 3rd in Sat. road race, 8th in Sat. afternoon's TT, and 3rd in Sun. crit for a 5th place overall in the tour.

iamTedKing rode exceptionally well also with a killer 4th place in Fri. road race and spending 80 miles or so out in a break during Sat.'s RR only to be caught with 4k to go. It was a heartbreaker as they would have surely stayed away if there would have been full cooperation and organization in the break. Robbie and Eddy also rode well late in the races in attempts of delivering Richie to the sprint in good position. And of course Brian was Brian - doing everything in his power to help us along: covering moves, leading the chase, getting bottles, etc. All the things that never show up in the results or the race reports but are essential to a good team result. As for me, I was somewhere in between a useless lump of shit and a valuable team rider. The only times I was present at the front the entire tour was in a break of 8 guys late in Fri's RR and for about half of a lap during the crit. The road race break looked like it might stick at first but there were too many people not pulling through for us to take it to the line. That in combination with me cramping up caused me to sit up and wait for the field. This conservative, no-presence-at-the-front style of racing would have been acceptable (not good, but at least tolerable) if I would have done a decent TT on Sat. afternoon. But alas, I was crap in the TT going 5s faster than Glen Mitchell who was so sick that he didn't start the crit the next day. In my defense, my brakes were rubbing the entire TT and my pedal broke halfway through so that I was pedaling one-legged the second half...oh, and I think I had a slow leak in the front but I can't be sure. So, there seems to be some bug that is running rampant through our team. As mentioned, Glen "I am a Racing Machine" Mitchell was out of commision the whole week, TommyTommy has been puking or more recently had loose bowel movements (which he loves to describe to us in detail) to the extent that he's not getting any nurishment from eating. The Kings have both had illnesses that seem to come and go quickly but then reoccur without warning. I have been dealing with what I think is allergies for 2 weeks now - slight cough and occasional runny nose that hasn't gotten better or worse with time. Bottom line: annoying but we're feeling that we're getting it out of the way now so we won't have to deal with any of this come Philly Week and Beauce. how's that for a positive spin? Okay, so overall, I'd have to say I had a good time racing this weekend due in part to my dad, uncle Don and Margie showing up to cheer us on. It was really nice to see them, especially during this rather long hiatus from home. I was pretty down after the TT, but the fact is that I felt absolutely satisfied with my effort and the most important thing right now is that I got some good racing in and some good experience to boot. Oh, and to end on another positive - Brent Meister General, Scott Stewart (U23 team) and the Lees-McRae Cycling Team won Collegiate Nationals again this past weekend. Brent won the road race, team time trial, and won the bunch sprint in the crit (letting his teammate win the race from the breakaway). I believe that makes 126 National titles for Brent - or somewhere in that ballpark. I'm sure all the competing coaches and underclassmen had a huge party to celebrate his departure from collegiate racing. Alright, thanks for reading. 7 days and counting till I'm reunited with Kira, Boulder, and Masa...

Oh, and this is the team guilt trip of the day: this is Benno hard at work on our bikes since 10 a.m. or so today (Monday) while the racers have been lounging about aimlessly drinking coffee and "internetting" (a verb I learned from my sister) ALL FRIGGIN DAY! Thanks Ben.