Unfourtunate

But first a recap of the Tour of Granite County...

Saturday:
The races kicked of with a short 68 mile road race. This was the first RR I had done since I think Nationals back in May. So I was pretty excited to not do so many circles. So off into the wind and sun the field went. The Masters and 1/2 were mixed, so the pack was pretty big. The attacks start almost right after the neutral roll out. The first lap (of 3) was pretty fast. Lots of attacking, at one point a big group got off the front, with most of the strongest guys in it. But for some reason it did not work, we in the group clawed our way back up to them. Almost right after that there was another big attack, with almost the same guys, not quite as many though. They got off and away they went. That happened not much before the lap ended, the second lap was not particularly hard. The teams that had guys up in the break were just keeping everything under control. There were a few small attacks, but nothing of significance. Then on the third lap things got fun again. The whole lap was real fast, the pack strung out almost the whole time. It was a race again. I was feeling good, and took some turns at the front (I had a little before this too), eventually we were nearing the finish, I am guessing about 2 miles out. I was sitting 3rd wheel. Casper was putting in a long hard pull for his team and some Rocky Mountain guy was 2nd wheel. Then all of a sudden he (R.M.) swerved at put his skewer into my front wheel. Needless to say I was no longer sitting 3rd wheel. There were 3 broken spokes and the wheel would not move at all. Game Over...
I was quite mad, I was feeling good, in great position, and was having a grand ol' time. And for some reason the 1/2 wheel car was missing. No one was really sure where it was. So I had to walk for a bit since my wheel did not move. Eventually the 3 field came by and I stole a wheel from that wheel car. I ended up finishing, dead last quite a ways back, but at least I finished.

The time trial was new for me. I have done plenty of TTTs but never and individual after a race, I think I just mentally convinced myself that since I was in last and did not have a TT bike I was not going to do well, thus I did not do well. It is always amazing what a mental block can do to you. Oh well...

Sunday:
The crit was right in downtown St. Cloud, and did not start until 2:30. I was able to sit in the hotel and watch the tour. That got me nice and motivated.
I got there nice and early, but for some reason did not get my stuff ready until to late. I ended up only getting about 30 min of warm up in. I need at least 45 to be properly set to go right off the start.
The field was small at 23, which was good, because at some places the road was pretty tight, a big field would not have been good. The race was off and full speed right away. The first 15 laps or so were just terrible, I was getting gapped on the corners, and having trouble catching up. It was no fun, I was just riding like crap. A bit after that I got really warmed up, and simple relaxed myself. The difference was immediate after relaxing, I stuck the corners had no trouble closing gaps that opened here and there. I started moving up in the pack. However I got pretty far up at one point and then someone did a bad turn and forced me way out on a corner. I lost my place and by this time the pace was too high to get back up. Then a few laps later someone else (or maybe not) had another bad corner and I skidded across a sewer grate. Again losing what position I had left. So from there on in I just stayed right where I was and the pack came home as one.

Now I am taking about 10 days off from training. It sucks because the weather is perfect for riding right now, calm, hot, and sunny. Of course the week I take off the weather is the nicest. No 63 mph winds...I am taking now off since rest is an import part of training, and there are not really and races coming up. I think there are only 2 or 3 RRs left in the year. One is Aug. 5 (which I cant do) and another is the 25. So perfect time to rest and restart for cross season.

Next year for road racing I need to change a few things. First I need to have my bike fitted properly, my neck was killing me on Sunday, a very sharp pain on the right side. My knees were also a bit sore. And secondly I need to not race on training tires. I think it might make a bigger difference then I thought. And of course I can always work on my riding, but that is different from the other two things...