The Opposite of Relaxation

Non-stop running around this past weekend. Brooks and I donned the TBB gear for the first time in racing action, competing in the Whitewater Omnium and Heather went to Lake Geneva for an Olympic distance triathlon. Brooks has an excellent recap of the races (and the weekend in general) on his blog as well. Here's my take:

Things started off on Friday afternoon with the time trial. It's been years since I last did a TT. I slapped my Cosmic Carbones on my road bike and there was my TT bike. The course had rolling hills, lots of corners, and plenty of wind. I ended up 6th with a time of 32:04 for the 20k course, so just under a 24mph average.

On Saturday was the crit in a park...it was a short loop with a decent little climb, some fun, fast corners on a descent, and then a sketchy turn off of a driveway. This was not a course where the pack was going to remain together. I got with a group of 4 other riders (there were 2 packs of riders in front of us) after 4-5 laps and we stuck together until the end. I ended up 15th, which I'm fine with since I normally suck at crits anyway.

Sunday brought the road race and the sun/heat. 6 mile loop that we had to do 7 times for 42 miles. This was a fun course...no real big climb, just lots of rollers and twists and turns around a lake. The pace was pretty slow for the 1st lap, and then 2 riders broke away at the beginning of the 2nd lap. I was feeling good, so I decided to bridge up to them. Once I reached them, they didn't want to work anymore, and they waited for the field to catch them. I continued on and soon after another rider bridged up to me. We started working well together, taking 1-2 minute pulls, and we soon had a good gap on the field. We stayed away for almost 4 laps, getting caught toward the beginning of the 6th lap. It was probably destined not to succeed, being that there were only 2 of us, but it was fun nonetheless. If we could have had 2-3 more riders with us, then maybe it would have stuck. I didn't really contest the sprint for the finish since I was further back in the pack, and rolled across the line in 18th.

Other tidbits from the weekend:

• Heather did well in her tri, getting 17th in her age group.
• She surprised Brooks and I by showing up to watch our road race on her way home from her tri.
• The new Brown Bear jerseys look fantastic on the road.
• Brooks' Reynolds Stratus DV-UL carbon rear wheel, 2005-2007, RIP. Sometimes they die too young, unfortunately.
• I forgot how good Taco John's is. We hit that up after the road race.
• The Dr. Bakke's are making their move to OH. I saw Andy for a total of 10 min during a "rest stop" on his journey. He DOES NOT like parades.
• On Saturday night I went with Mary and Brooks to watch Roller Derby. That freakin ruled. If you have the chance, I highly recommend going.
• The weekend ended nicely by playing some disc golf in perfect conditions at a course in East Madison. Really cool 18 hole course.
• All this action, and absolutely no pics from me. My apologies. :)