coming around

Sorry for the late update/race recap. This past Sunday was the ETJC criterium. Boy was it action packed. The race starts and cool dude Graham Foster goes of the front. I bridge to him, then we get caught. Another guy goes off the front, this time he is from the Metrosexual cycling team. I chase him down and go into the hurt box 10 minute into the race. oops, so much for controlling myself and waiting til after 15 minutes have passed to start getting in moves. Now I am in a 4 man break OFF THE BACK. Dang, another crit down with a pointless performance. But wait, the 4 man group I am with is working together. We are consistently 10 seconds back. We come around after a couple of laps and I hear a prime bell, I know the poop is about to hit the fan in the field so I do a hard pull to bridge back up, and I do. GREAT SUCCESS. I sit in for several minutes. Another guy on the Metrosexual cycling team is off the front and the field is completely content with letting him go. He stays off the front for several laps, I think 15 or 20 minutes. Dirk Pohlman is pulling the whole time, so as soon as I feel recovered, I go up to the front to help him out. I pull until I see the guy blow up, then I sit up. Soon after he is caught, my bro Stefan goes off the front and brings a Metrosexual with him, now they have a 5 bike length gap going into the last turn. Going through the last turn, the Metrosexual literally hits Stefans back wheel and they both go down. I go by and the Metrosexual is dog cursing Stefan.

WARNING! RANT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN! if you would like to skip this rant, skip to the next paragraph. OK so this Metrosexual is dog cursing my bro Stefan. As I ride by, my initial reaction is to get under his skin, I do this very well. I am much smaller than him, probably by a good 150 pounds (for a Metrosexual cyclist, he was very fat) So I cannot start a fight and throw my wheel at him, so I have to get under his skin. So as I pass him I yell watch the language. Stupid, I know, however I think he his the kind of guy that would get annoyed by that. Later the next lap, I ask Dirk what happened, he was sitting on their wheel and had a front row seat, he said the metrosexual dude was sucking Stefans wheel, Stefan slowed going into a turn and the Metrosexual hit him and is "bitching" Stefan out for it. As the Metrosexual gets back in the race, I told him look dude, there are a bunch of kids watching this race, watch your language. A few laps after that he comes up to me and tells me,"Dude I don't know what you were telling me, but shut up. You don't know me so don't talk to me. Your f-ing team can't ride bikes." I tell him, "You doing a great job of making yourself look like an idiot." He then mentions something like we should try a bike rodeo? What is a bike rodeo? I tell him, "I ride bikes, not bulls, SHUT UP YOU ARE STUPID" By the end of the race, this guy was "bitched out" by almost every single Tennessee rider in the race. I hope he gets the idea he is not welcome in Tennessee. It was funny hearing his teammate say, "That guy is pissed off on a good day." After the race he was completely ignored by his teammates.

So Stefan gets back in the race and John Hart is able to make the break. He is the only guy on the team in a 6 man break so it was kinda risking letting it go, but I didn't have the legs to bridge up. As the race goes on, I go up and pull, Dirk is on my wheel. After a lap of pulling, my teammate Jeff Mcgrane starts yelling GO GO GO! I look back and I can't believe it. Dirk opened a gap up to my wheel and Jeff immediately bridged up. So at one point of the race I am off the back, at another point I am riding people off my wheel, how is this possible? A couple people bridge up, Dirk being one of them and the chase group is now 5 people. I don't have the legs to stay up there so I go back to the group that Stefan is in and finish with him. End up getting 11th. Big props to my team. They dominated the crit. They didn't win the stupid meat head competition,(Metrosexual team won that competition) but they did win the we race smart and we do what it takes to make the best out of a situation competition. John Hart ended up taking 2nd and Mcgrane ended up taking 6th or 7th. I think Stefan was right behind me or 13th. This weekend is a good sign that my legs are finally coming around. Also, it taught me to never think I'm completely out of a race because I was dropped. This upcoming weekend is the French Broad Cassic in Asheville. This is a REAL race. Big fields, big pros, and hard courses. I've never been climbing this well, EVER, so hopefully I will do well on this mountainous road race. I will let you know how it goes on Saturday after the race. It's going to be one of those races where I do amazing, or I do horrible. Either way, I am going to get a good ride in and good prep for Crossroads. Also, didn't get invited to Presby (huge NRC race where winner gets 10g) The promoter said Cat 1's only, so I might submit an upgrade request just so I can do this race. I'm not sure if I can get upgraded, or if it's even worth it. Cat 2 bonuses sure are nice, not that I'm getting them or anything. BTW I do not have any problems with metrosexuals, I have a problem with this one guy on the Metro cycling team out of Asheville. I apologize if I offended any metrosexual reader, I doubt I have any readers, but just in case there is one out there.
Thanks for reading the long posts
The Crow