So Wente...a race I love to HATE. Its a climbers race and I'm not a climber at 175, I suffered as a cat4, cat3 and now as a cat2.
Me and Neil toe the line at the back and we both laugh at how screwed we are - the field boasted some very strong riders with Pro's in the mix and other Norcal giants that can drop me on a climb on my best day.
Off we go - few miles till the climb and I know I should be moving up as far as possible but geez these P12 races go from the gun! To make matters worse I must have warmed up for all of 10min and it looked like Yahoo plus others were trying to establish a break @ mile 0.
We hit the climb and I try to find a nice spinning gear that matches the pace. Oh the pace - o man i need to lose some more weight aaargh. I'm doing okay but heating up fast - only consolation is at this speed we will be cresting the top of the first climb quickly where I know i can catch my breath.
Half way up and whaaaaaa my freaking chain drops! Or rather its spinning on top of the cassetee WTF seriously this shit never happens on training rides. So i have to freaking stop mid climb and seat my chain on the cassette, I look up and i have a 200 meter gap to close and rising. FML - put my head down and hammer, oh man it hurt. I catch Neil who is dangling off the back and we work together to chase back. Let me tell you bridging uphill is no fun. We got fairly close and I yell back to Neil that I'm going to try to jump back to the group and went for it. I managed to get back on but burned some serious matches just to get back in the game. I was breathing through my eyes and struggling to stay attached...just need to make it to the descent.
Okay recovered a bit on the descent but was still tail gunning which i knew was a very dangerous place to be but i was in no condition to do anything other then dangle
Next run up the hill and i'm last wheel - spin up the legs and got right to the start finish line near the top of the first climb where I got gapped off with a few others...if I had moved up in the pack and gave my self some room to slide I think I would have made the cut at least for another lap.
As I watched the pack ride away I got into my own pace and caught up to 3 other guys. We all worked back to the start of the race and decided it was such a nice day we should do another lap.
Enjoyed the beutiful weather and working with my dropped buddies. Felt so good in fact I was ready to do another lap to finish the race when of course I nailed a rock with my front tire and pinch flatted.
Game over
Pretty rough weekend for me - I went home tired and kind of crushed. I had fully expected to get dropped but it doesn't diminish the feeling of suck. Once home the wife is in a rush to get to her nephews birthday. I'm tired and want to stay home - wife has other plans and we get into it.
I concede and shower and load all the kids in the truck to go to SJ where I sit on my ass eating cupcakes (NOM NOM NOM) all afternoon wishing i was home...damn that's two battles I lost in one day.
Finally they come for the jumper so we can get out of there. I go to get my truck that I parked down the street to save parking space and see the icing on the cake. Some douche bag had thrown a rock threw my drivers side window. F$#@%R%
defeat - the feeling that accompanies an experience of being thwarted in attaining your goals
