Author

Brian Morrissey on Apr 21, 2008

Race name: Great Dane Criterium #2 Race date: Monday, Apr 21, 2008

I take the triple

In coffee, races, burgers

Still, three ain’t enough.

Me, myself, and I

Among speed, experience

Just try to keep up

I drew the picture

With a sharp and hard pencil

And shapes formed, strong lines

One to go, got it

Hey, get in line Triple X!

I say to myself

That’s a fast turn man

Tucked it back in, still the square

Aw, hell! Where’d you go?!

Hard breaths, a fast fade

Shelley Levine versus Blake

Pain squishing my strength

Fall back, can’t react

That damn turn still outsmarts me

Have body, got a brain?

For my last time through

By fingernails in wet clay

At least it was free

Translation? Hard day. Feeling it even now. In retrospect I should’ve maybe only done two races to have a bit more for working with teammates, as well as put priority on two better chances for points. Instead, after doing well sitting in solo, keeping up with fast the fast Masters boys and getting completely schooled on the last turn, I didn’t have enough for the rest of day, with a half hour break before my second race.

10 minutes into the third race, with no break, I didn’t think I’d make it, even after a really slow start. The first race I was killing the hill, now it was killing me, and I didn’t have enough left to react in time to anything. So I sat at the back to recover, nearly got dropped behind a couple of fading wheels, but with three to go, got back to the front at the headwind. But the final surge just left me behind.

Peter won the 4s race. He’s super aggressive and rides with purpose and initiative. He needs one more win, and he's got his upgrade - and he's finding those like quarters under the vending machine these days. There was some teamwork, but very disorganized. A bit of a train came together with 2 to go (I can’t remember which race that was, tho) with Jacques, Newt, and myself, but broke up in the surge. Nothing was getting off on a hill with a headwind, at least in our races. But bottom line is I need to pay a lot more attention. I tell myself this before every race, but I have such a hard time focusing once everything starts.

The day's total: Master’s 3/4 = 14th place; Open 4 = 16th place; Master’s 4/5 = 22nd place.

I hate baby steps. But I guess they’re gonna be my MO, so I’ll learn from them. I took some wheels, smartly bridged to a couple nascent breakaways…but, and here’s the entire day summed up in one run-on sentence:

I lacked initiative to be where I needed to have the balls to get to the front of the pack to take turn 4 on my terms, instead of having to slow down to get in line and missing the jump every &*$* TIME.

Oh well, it’s April. I'll learn and refuse to get frustrated. It's fun! Let's have some fun! Although I am very glad I didn't have to drive home from Madison yesterday with only my thoughts.

Also good: I like sausage.