Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Might as well name a street after me....

If they did it would be called 15th street. I raced rockford this past weekend and felt good heading into the race. The first few laps were rather hard and all of a sudden I feel like everything is extremely hard and nearly getting dropped. I came over the Maple Street climb and took the left and headed into the dicey right hander I almost lose it. Luckily the curb stopped my bike from going to the ground and I look down and realize I had flatted. I did not panic and knew I could get a free lap. I went to the wheel pit and got my teammates spare. I have been riding a Ksyrium Equipe rear wheel due to the hubs on all others being shot, and who would have thought a wheel with a powertap on it would be lighter than the wheel I was racing on. I get my wheel on and wait to get back in the group and right after I am in the group the break of the race goes. I think to myself oh shit because I missed the break, but had a teammate there so I was cool with that. We did get really close to catching them but no one wanted to close the last 10 meters down, so I figured hell I am not going to be the guy to ruin Boer's chances. After a few laps their lead grew to 25 seconds and I was just trying to sit pretty and wait until the closing laps. A crash in the last 15 minutes nearly derailed all my plans, but I snuck around that safely. Moving on I was feeling good coming into the last few laps, sitting up front and out of trouble. With a little over a lap to go Taylor Birrman gave it a dig and literally was 5 meters in front of us the whole last lap, and everyone jammed up the hill. I eased back waiting for Taylor to get caught and put myself out of contention for a good placing, so egg on my face. I was eager to race the TT the next day, but a respiratory infection dashed those hopes and I have not touched a bike since the race on Saturday. I really need to grow some balls and just stop thinking so much while racing. Fuck it, it is just a bike race though.

2 comments:

the MICHIGANSCENE said...

jerry its good to see you back. and trust us thinking is overated

Little Bits of Everything said...

thanks,
I have always been an overanalyzer. Anyhow, it is good to be back and racing for the summer. Two months from now I will be teaching freshman.