Racing and Lactic Acid

Been racing a lot since I last wrote. The usual, crit on Tuesday night in Golden, time trial on Wed and stuff on the weekend. Last weekend was the Hugo RR, a rolling-windy death march and the Denver City Park Criterium. Roommate Kelly killed on the RR and won her category. I like to think I helped her with strategy by telling her to just ride off early on b/c she has some sick endurance-tempo engine. I on the other hand road stupidly, missed the first break, then got caught behind a crash. Had to unclip then the leaders drilled it. I finally caught some other riders and we led a nice chase but it was too little to take on the 15 riders thats were leading. I played director with my chase group and told everyone what to do. With 17mi to go, I just upped the tempo and rode away. Finished alright but disappointed. Crit was tough. Lots of crashes and geese in the roads. Head was still bothered from the Hugo showing.

During the tt on Wed it was a total downpour with lightning and thunder all around. I made it too my start time with 3minutes to spare. It was a stressful warmup but definitely the perfect one b/c the legs were good for the TT and I didn't have time to cool down in the downpour. When I finished rain picked up then it started dumping hail. Lesson: hail sucks and is painful. Despite being completely soaked, riding in the rain is kind of fun. I was drilling it all out and managed to only lose 12s from the previous week under ideal conditions. So it was a good tt for me.

Today was the Mike Horgan Hill Climb, another Front Range classic. The race is a 18mi race up to Nederland via Sugarloaf Rd and Peak-to-Peak Hwy. Features but not limited too: 3800ft of gain, 7mi of dirt road, and complete lactic burn. I was in the front group for the first 8mi but it completely blew me up. I don't remember blowing up so much. When it hit the dirt, I got some legs back and clawed my way back albeit taking some risks on the descents. It definitely goes down as one of the hardest efforts I have ever done. On the rtn trip downhill via Boulder Canyon Rd, I think I probably averaged the same power going up the hill on the 17mi rtn trip. I was in my 53x11 or 12 the entire time. The cat 2s I rolled down with were pushing it and I felt like pushing it too. Had a little scary moment with a nasty speed wobble and started drifting into traffic. The Zurich I'm riding gets nasty wobble. It really sucks b/c I love pushing it downhill. Not sure if I am putting too much weight on the front wheel or what. But its super scary when you are kicking 70k/h and the front wheel feels likes its going to break off from wobbling. The Wilier was a dream on the downhill.

When I was pinning my number on in the parking lot, I spotted Jennie Longo next to me. Longo is 51, and still kills it. Probably the best women's bike racer or bike racer in general of all time. Shawn and Karl have lots of funny storied about this woman. But she is still crazy fast. Only in Boulder do you get someone of such caliber doing a local hill climb race. Its just unbelievable here. Reminds me of the group ride I did in Westmeerbeek, BE. There were guys in the ride, had to be in their late 60s/early 70s. Probably rode Le Tour and all the other classics. I just remember riding double paceline with these guys and they are just killing it, at times stringing it out. Cycling is cool like that. You can be old but still kill it.

ciao,
Roberto