Catchin' Up

So, school is out and I'm supposed to have more time... supposed to anyway. But, a lot has been happening.

I left some teary eyed soon-to-be-sixth graders last Wednesday, got all checked out with my principal and began packing for Elkhorn. Before I go into all the gory details about 10 hours in the car there is a little catching up to do...

There was that little old Sierra Nevada Crit two weekends ago where PtotheArker, Todd Stone and Ian McPherson spun with the 4's... all finishing respectably with the pack. El Gigante rode a solid 3's race but got stuck in the wrong surge on the last lap. And, AwfoSho found the watts to be slightly lacking in the prosey race. He read the race perfectly, tried to follow Mike Hernandez as he made the winning selection but came up just shy on the watt-o-meter, and, instead, drifted back to the pack that was eventually lapped by big Mikey and his break.

Same weekend different day, several of the boys--TK, Staz, Davitamon, and the Tapinator--toured Nevada City. Not much to report 'cepting for some tactical mistakes that maybe cost us a W.

Then there was the Gold Nugget Stage Race where Laundry won what sounds like a barn burner on the last stage. Way to go Laundry!

I'm sitting here tonight looking at ice baths, green snot, and tired boys...

The down and dirty from Oregon... TK stormed Elkhorn, finishing 14th on the GC out of 107 in the prosey race. Davitamon, AWfoSho, and TK rode a blistering fast prosey race... on the first stage the kidlets were spun out in junior gears as they headed UP the Powder River Canyon during the 85 mile first stage. El Gigante stayed with the 3's til the finishing climb and Staz was the lucky recipient of a flat tire and a slow wheel change leaving him to ride 40+ miles on his own in the 4's... The second stage TT was a downhill out and an uphill back. TK did his thing, riding well enough to finish 15th. The stage three crit was another fast one in the proseys... rumor has it that they averaged 29 mph for 6o minutes. AWfoSho moved up with 5 to go in a bid for glory, but wasn't ready to play pinball for the bigger stronger sprinter types so drifted back to watch the finish. Safeway's Dan Martin said that the last couple laps were about as scary as any crit he'd been in. El Gigante rode in the front 15 of the 3's race for the entire shindig until it slowed down with three to go. He came out of the ensuing melee in about the thirtieth spot and could only fight his way back up to around twenty or so in the last two laps. Staz was left still searching for those elusive upgrade points in the 4's crit. The final stage was the queen with four solid climbs, 105 miles and a mountain top finish. AWfoSho and El Gigante called it quits at the feed zone after 40 miles, Davitamon, TK and Staz soldiered on to the finish. TK nailed the final climb to solidify his 14th place on the GC. Got some pics from Jan that I'll try to get up soon...

Yesterday saw the kidlets sitting on a computrainer with coach Jesse... the watts keep climbing as the kiddos get older and stronger. The big surprise was El Gigante who produced more watts in the Conconi than all but TK... when that kidlet turns all the babyfat into muscle he'll be a force. His climbing is already improving. Look out! Bummer is that the load from Elkhorn has caused a little tendonitis to flare up in his knee... hence the ice baths. He looks a little silly on his hands and knees in his joe boxers with one knee completely submerged in a huge bucket of ice water. Looks like a couple days off the bike.

TK may be off the bike for a few days as well... He took it to the limit at Elkhorn and it seems as tho some nasty bugger has taken advantage of a suppressed immune system to take up residence in his sinuses.

And to catch you up to today... Jesse took the kids up Ralston Ridge, let them meander through the remains of last summer's forest fire and spun them down Mosquito Ridge... just 75 miles with 13,000 feet of climbing. I'm glad I was following in the car for this one... you should have seen all the water bottles, banana peels and PB&J crusts on the floor of my car by the time we got back to Forest Hill...

yackety yack... I'll try to put the pics up with something a little more coherent soon.

Weekend Recap...

Cruisin' the internet instead of the end of year grading and coming up with results from the weekend.

Laundry spent some time out on the coast and came top twenty in the 3's at Pescadero. Not bad for a fifteen year old kidlet. The Staz spent his weekend in the mountains and came 2nd at Sattley. Long drive for a quick little TT, but the result is impressive anyhow.

On the home front, TK, AWfoSho, El Gigante, and Garden drug me out for a 65 mile sufferfest to ride repeats on Mix Canyon. Not much to report, just the same old sufferfest... not enough water, not enough watts... you know the drill.

I do have this photo on my phone that I can't quite figure out how to get loaded onto my computer. I probably spent $10.00 in extra phone charges trying to get it emailed to my hotmail account, but can't seem to master the technology. Anyways, its this shot of TK climbing out of a rather deep ditch somewhere on the lower slopes of Mix. Now you are thinking, jeesh, he overcooked a corner on the descent... and I wouldn't blame you, but it was a little more humorous than that... We'd just started up and Garden mentions some bit of trivia or something. It was important enough to break TK's concentration and he drifted off the road. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a shoulder, and it was a nearly vertical drop for 20 feet to the creek bed. Both feet unclip, the bars wobble, and just when one thinks he's gonna save it, the rear wheel starts to lift. Hind quarters hang in the air for a brief moment, and TK takes the head first dive. Definitely video worthy, all we have is the photo, if somebody can tell me how to get it uploaded.

Quite funny, but, truth be told, we were pretty lucky. off the road 10 feet earlier and TK uses a 2 foot diameter black walnut to break his fall. off the road 10 feet later and the slope is vertical with a rather large pile of sticks and whatnot at the bottom that would have most definitely impaled him. Instead, he slid down a 70 degree slope of dry grass and twigs, perhaps some poison oak, leaving him itchy and dirty, but otherwise unharmed.

Can't imagine having to tell Jim that TK was taken to the hospital because he's a newb! Luckily I didn't... let me know if you can hel out with the upload thing...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Dunlap TT... The good:

• The weather... perfect day for a TT. Zero wind, 70ish degrees. Rapidamente!!!
• TK's 17/18 win in 27:35... the fastest time I've seen on that course... 20 seconds faster than Adam Switters best.
• Laundry's 2 spot in the 15/16's... Hey, you just beat a national champion. What are you gonna do now? Disneyland? Where did Davis Bentley come up with a 28:33?
• Kelbster's 2 spot in the 10/12's... How do you pass the guy who got first and not win?
• Takumi's Kawaguchi's first bicycle race!
• El Gigante overhearing "some random parent saying, 'I wonder who runs that Davis Team. They are really good.'"
• Racing bikes and being home and finished at 10:30 in the morning.

Dunlap TT... The bad:

• Poorly organized Roll-Out. It cost El Gigante 10 seconds and Brian Larson about 5... the officials credited the kidlets the time, but both of them were unfocused and in the wrong gear at the start, which probably cost them some additional time...
• Mechanicals. We're not sure if the nasty creaking/grinding sound resonating off AWfoSho's disk cost him any time, but it for sure took him off his game. He was unable to focus enough to get the heartrate where it needed to be. On his best day he is about 1:30 faster on the same course, so something was definitely wrong. How come it always breaks during a race? We spent two days making sure the bike was set up and working the way it should. Couldn't it have broken during one of the pre-race check rides? Monticello's Kyle Paterson suffered the same fate, flatting his disk shortly before the start. He borrowed Davitamon's spare, but when all is not right with the world it is hard to focus... Mechanicals just plain suck.
• Kelbster missing his start time by 3:10... He still finished second, and even passed the kid who won. But, since the kid's start time was behind Kelbster's he finished first when he really was second... Understand that?

Dunlap TT... the ugly:

Don't really know what to put here... Was gonna say, "the grinding noise coming off AWfoSho's disk." but I mentioned that above. I guess I could talk about Davitamon's hair, but TK said it best when he proffered the advice, "Next time some guy asks if he can pee on your head, just tell him no!" Anything else that could be called ugly about bicycle racing can be explained away by TBR... That's Bike Racing!

Congrats to all the kiddo's who raced their bikes today...