Road Kill

I was going to post about my rules for a safe and efficient paceline, as well as etiquette, but instead, I'm just going to put up pictures of my sweet new road rash. It's been a couple months since my last crash, so here we go.
Four points of contact, knee, hip, elbow and shoulder. My front wheel dipped into a sink hole that I couldn't see and it just decided to stop. I flew over the bars at over 25 mph and hit the ground, dragging my bike after me. My water bottles went flying past my head and as I unclipped I slid onto my back and skidded for 27 seconds before coming to a stop. Sweet. I stood up and cussed, only to see a woman with her kids standing across the street asking if I was okay. Thankfully, I was, and am, and only have lost skin and shredded clothing to show for it. Well, we'll see whats wrong with my bike tomorrow.

Cedar Mountain Road Race

Um. I may be a little over trained. Either that or I shouldn't have eaten so many Cheeto's the night before a 66 mile, 3 hour road race. Either way, I sucked today. To start, I never saw a convenience store on the way to the race and I thought I'd just be able to water up in the school's bathrooms. But no one came to unlock the school so I had to make do with the liter of water I had in the car. For three hours of racing. I warmed up by riding around the area looking for a gas station where I could buy something to drink. No luck.
Race starts with about 45 guys. It's cool out, as the sun hasn't really come over the mountains yet. So i'm not worrying about water too much. I made it through one lap (11 miles) with the group fine. I was a little chicken coming through one of the corners on the descent and wasted some energy chasing, but stuck with everyone coming back into the climb on the second lap. I got gapped towards the top and combined with my crappy cornering, I was a minute back coming through the start/finish. I chased solo until I caught up to one rider from the Colavita development team. He and I rode the third lap together, staying in sight of the peloton up until the climb. We started to catch popped riders, as well as drop them. I ran out of water somewhere around here. On the last lap together, we became a group of four, until the climb when I popped, and he rode away with one of our catches. They finished at least a minute ahead of me. Ouch. The field? Even further ahead. Anyway, I was given 17th out of 29 listed racers, with 10 DNF's.
I don't know if it was the bad pre race dinner, a bad pre race breakfast, not enough water, or not enough recovery from a near ten hour week. I raced really well on Tuesday, held back on Wednesday and rode nice and easy Thurs/Fri. We'll see how I fare tomorrow night in CT. In any case, I think I still have some hill training to do!

Cycle Fitness Training Crits

I have done three of these Tuesday night crits. They are hard, fast and pretty laid back as far as races go. There are "training races" in the Philly area, but I don't consider anything a race, training or otherwise, if you don't pin on a number.
Doing these training races is great to get over the first lap nerves that you get. Once you are used to pinning on your number and lining up, you quickly just get used to the process and you can focus on the race.
Last night was the first time I didn't get stitches and sit out a lap. I felt strong, had good power in my legs, and sprinted for at least four of laps with points. I beleive that I came out with a 3rd or 4th place at the final lap, depending on whether we caught the lone breakaway or not. I was a little cross eyed, so forgive me for not knowing!
I am happy with how I rode, considering I raced hard on Sunday at Doylestown and only had one day of recovery. I have three days now to recover before the Tour of Vernon- Cedar Mountain Road Race. 66 miles with what should be some serious climbing. Can't wait.

This year's crash

I haven't crashed this year, well, now I have. Not only did I crash for the first time this year, but I crashed on my left side for the first time, maybe ever. So now I have a hipper on the left to make me symmetrical again. Should I ever get tatooed up that far (or down that far, depending) I may have the artist go around this spot. Cause I'm just gonna lose that skin. Again, and again, and again.
But on a positive note, I rode strong and felt good. Funny though, right at 1h30, my eSoles started bugging me, like it was the first time I had ever worn them. I guess my new position changes my foot pressure. Weird.