Lining Up and Number Pinning

Well, after almost 7 months, I made it back. I started my first race, The Valley of the Sun! When I was pinning numbers on my jersey last night it was weird b/c the last time I did it was in July at Cascade. Madey me reminicse of my days sitting a curb at the Belgian kermesses pinning numbers on and nodding to the old belgian dudes as they checked my bike out and my legs. The latter for purposes of whether I was a good bet for the day or not.

Well, today was the 22km time trial. Weather was pretty much not "Valley of the Sun" with lingering light showers and cold air. The goal for the whole weekend was just get some good racing kms in and enjoy racing the bike. I did just that. But I'm not one to just roll up and not throw down. My ride was middle of the pack. Without any aerobike and only one day of race intensity since July, I was pretty satisfied. I kept power high and managed to get the tt drool, ie foaming from the mouth from exhaustion. TTs are a unique animal. I spoke with Shawn afterwards and we are going to work on getting a tt rig and putting some needed tt training in. Hopefully using one day a week devoted to TT. So much of stage racing in the US is accomplished through a great TT. So putting myself in GC position, i need to get better TT power which will help me translate into becoming the top competition rider I dream about.

Now, when i think I have seen everything, I was doing some riding around Tempe yesterday and i rolled up behind this guy who was riding his bike and simultaneously taxing his plan. Yep, he was taxing his remote plan on the street while riding with traffic. Now, I'm a pretty good bike handler but I'd be pretty hesitant about taxing my remote control plan with one hand on the bike and one on the controls. As you can imagine, one erratic move and the plane is crushed. Werid, but its AZ =)

Tomorrow is the road race, 115km. Plan is to ride near the front and follow the moves. Something will happen hopefully, and I will be a part of it =)

Tonight, we ate at a local italian landmark. The Rock Racing team was next too us. They are pretty much the super gucci squad. They roll in $200 jeans and Cadillac Escalades to the races. Well, my subaru foresters is better and I roll with Patagucci...Boo Yah!

Chow,
Matthew