poo poo crit

Well, I'm back. This past weekend was the River Gorge Crit. I was able to carpool there with my good friends Robbie Kidd and Michael "The Manatee" Weber. Webers race was earlier in the day. He proved that he is getting better and better. He was placed well late in the race, however he got stuck to close to the front with one lap to go. I think he ended 16th or so. Every race he does he improves. He still struggles on maintaining good position, but he will get the hang of it. Robbies race was before mine. His race was a selective crash filled race. After sitting in the field conserving his energy, he sacrificed his position to avoid crashing (a good sacrifice.) Had Robbie wrecked, he would have ruined his wheelset. Once he avoided his wreck he slipped to the back of the course. The course was extremely narrow and technical making moving up very hard. He ended up coming in mid field in the sprint I think. My race was delayed due to a guy wrecking and the ambulance being on the course. Kinda scary knowing the course is sketchy enough for a guy to be wheeled off in an ambulance. My race starts and it is hard from the gun. To be honest, I was in the red zone for the first 20 minutes, no rest. Even though I was hurting, alot, I was still doing a decent job of staying near the front. I knew how hard it would be if I were at the back, so I tried with everything to stay at the front. As I was covering some moves at the front, my two teammates where chilling at the back, which kinda sucked cause I was dieing trying to cover this stuff and they were no where to be found. As the race goes on, we are constantly dropping riders. about 30 minutes into the hour long race, I begin to get some pretty severe stomach cramps. The race doesn't sit up til about 40 minutes in. Once the race sits up, a d-bag rider attacks and stays away for the win. About 45 minutes in, there is a small split int he field. At this point, my stomach cramps are getting worse and worse. I decided I was going to drill it to make the split, and if I didn't make the split, I was going to drop out to relieve my cramps. Well, I don't make the split, so I pull out and go strait to the restrooms. Once I get done, I go to watch the race and I realize there are only like 15 riders left in the race, 35 started. The winds and technical course destroyed the race. I definitely learned some things from this race. Kinda suck it ended up that way, but I learned. So whats next you may ask? Last race of the year is coming up a week from today, US 10k classic. I can't wait for it to come. My power is getting slightly better. More than anything, I am looking forward to letting loose for a couple of weeks. My discipline is getting weaker and weaker. It's ok in my opinion, for the first time, I am not physically or mentally burned out at the end of the year, its kind of a crazy feeling. Yes, the sensations of being peaked have left my legs. However, I still feel good. I might give a midweek update, if not, I will definitely give a post race/season recap.
Til next time,
the Crow