Giro & Cali and some tidbits

I have to name the Giro d'Italia as my favorite race of the entire year. The race is deep in history but the atmosphere that takes over the entire country in May for three weeks is just contagious, in a very positive way. Heck, my italian has grown over the last few years by just following the race via the Gazzetta dello Sport website. It helps that I'm also taking italian on Rossetta Stone, so May is a fun month to watch racing in Italy. And so far, the race has taken a very international flavor, not only with its depart in Denmark, but with the diversity of winners and pink jersey wearers. Good to see Ryder Hesdejal in pink for 3 days. The world champ is also in the mix by getting a stage win or two to add to his tally, and the italians are making sure the fun never stops, by adding some aggressive attacking in each of the stages thus far. "Purito" Rodriguez grabbed the jersey in stunning fashion and believes that he can take it all the way to the end. His team director is not that convinced, since the spaniard is known for dropping the anchor on the big climbs and has a known allergy to individual time trials. We shall see. On this side of the Atlantic, the Tour of California is also taken place. "The Sagan Show" as it should be named, has had hills from day one, something better for the fan if you ask me. Those short prologue during starting a stage race is rather boring. The organizers have gotten it right I think, and the weather has helped too. But the young Liquigas-Cannondale phenom has shown his class in each of the first three days, by riding his bike with such panache. Nevermind he's a bit dry during his post win interviews, the show he (and his teamamtes) puts while on the road makes up for his lack of charisma, if you may. And on the "WTF" column, this little gem. First the director sportif calls him "an idiot", only to turn around later and offer the full team support to the rider. What can I say?. The shoot now and ask questions later attitude that has clouded the sport, continues with poor reporting on the french leading sport's newspaper, a quick pull of the trigger on the part of team management and a rider's career hangs on the line. Just another day in the circus. ciao!

Coldspring RR and Giro

This has to be my favorite finish for a road race. Coldsprings offers a nice, rolling, 16 mile loop, with a tough uphill finish, so once the move back to Texas was completed last September, I quickly marked it on the calendar of races as a MUST!!. Up until last Saturday, the training has gone according to plan. In Fayeteville, the effects of a week in Cancun showed that drinking and eating, then traveling straight to the race after 4 days of laying by the beach is not good preparation. Then at Beauty and The Beast, I could sense that things were starting to turn. But once I started to do the Gruppo VOP ride in Austin on Saturdays, my form just took off. So not wanting to push things as in previous years, I devised this plan to include two hard rides during the week, but plenty, and I mean, plenty of easy riding in between. Never was I a fan of one hour long rides, I couldn't be bothered, but now, after getting some good feelings and getting to the weekend rested as opposed as trashed from too much riding during the week, the chances at Coldpsring looked promising. The only other time I did the race was in 2006, when I finished 3rd...with that in mind and knowing that the form was there, I told myself 3er or better this time, and to hug the yellow line as much as possible, especially on the approach to the finish. At a few minutes after 8am, the Masters 35+ 4/5 took off and my teammates Glenn and Danny were joining in the festivities. Totally against my style of racing (tail gunner), I spent the first lap of the race no farther than 5 positions from the front. The pace wasn't hot and it wasn't until someone went down somewhere in the middle of the second lap, that things started to pick up. As is customary with me, I went straight to the back of the group, but was finding it easy to move back to the front, thanks to wide roads and the undulations allowed me to carry momentum at will. When we hit the last lap, a two man break formed and those two guys worked very well together...Glenn came by and asked if they would stay away. Shaken my head to indicate, no!!, I was sure that their short lead was going to be closed down by the main bunch as we got near the finish. But they kept a relentless and steady pace, while at the back the bunch became unorganized, or the chase was properly disrupted. Danny put on a ton of effort, together with a couple of other guys, to close the gap, but there was a team from Houston always getting in and slowing things down. At the front, the two escapees just kept their heads down while at the back we were already thinking about racing for third. Over the bridge we went and I was towards the back of the then diminished pack, safely inside but close to the yellow line, as my plan was. Confusion sat in with where the 200m mark was, but I knew that once the front sped up, the middle of the road would open up, and it did...I began to accelerate about 300 meters out, sticking to the yellow line, and passing riders...I glanced up and the two breakways were taking the two top spots, but two other guys were fighting for the last podium spot...I was now in full afterburner mode and closing fast on the next two riders, but one of them looked back and kicked again. So 4th it was...not the goal I had set, but not a bad result either. Glenn and Danny were not that far behind, coming in 6th and 7th. Meanwhile, over in Denmark, the Giro is now on its way to the motherland. Good for Phinney to take the lead on Saturday and for battling two crashes on the next two stages. Ferrari's attitude and mouth didn't win him any friends today, but in pro cycling, people like him find the hard way not to mess or risk other riders chances, especially, when you are marked as the guy who took down the current World Champ. His manager, the cagey, Giani Savio went into damage control as soon as his rider had crossed the line. A great tactician but even better politician, Savio's PR move would hopefully sooth any hard feelings, and the up coming day off should help his cause.

Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Who could have predicted that one?. I sure as heck didn't have Astana's Maxim Iglisnkiy on my list of favorites, although the Kazakh rider is known for putting on some strong rides. Instead, it was left to the usual suspects to battle it out for the top podium spots. And my guess here is that the weather wrecked havoc amongst the peloton, because most of the riders looked pretty shattered with 30kms to go.
Nibali grabbed the bull by the horns, and used one of his biggest weapons, a descend, to put some daylight between himself and the rest of what was left of the peloton. And at some point, he built a gap, that according to the television broadcaster, was something along the 42 second mark. Meanwhile, at the back of the pack, the Schelck brothers were showing no signs of improving form, despite the fact that the english voice of cycling commentary, kept giving both guys accolades left, right and center.
Back to racing, BMC looked for a minute to have things under control, until Astana showed up to spoiled the party. With strength in numbers, Iglinskiy sat off in pursuit of Nibali, discarding in the process, Fleche Wallone's hero, Joaquim Rodriguez. Nibali looked strong and in control of his destiny, but when the camera mounted on the helicopter above zoomed out, it revealed doom for the italian. Iglinskiy was a mere 8 seconds behind and closing fast. The Liquigas Cannondale man, swung his bike to the right, and locked eyes with Iglinskiy, who then shifted and accelerated up the last drag to the finish.
What I learned from watching the race:

1. The Schleck brothers will never, ever, win the Tour de France.
2. Nibali is a madman when it comes to going downhill.
3. Iglisnkiy has what it takes to win the big races.
4. Riding in the cold and rain sucks, even for the pros.

La Fleche Wallone

Every cycling "expert" had mentioned it since Sunday...that "Purito" Rodriguez would win La Fleche Wallone on Sunday. Not that there weren't any other worthy possibilities, but since Phillipe Gilbert's form has taken its sweet time to appear, "Purito" was a good choice. And he didn't dissapoint. Launching a devastating attack on the steepest part of the Mur de Huy, the spaniard stamped his authority and clenched his well sought victory.
Ryder Hesdejal showed that his form is coming along just fine ahead of his big target, the Giro d'Italia, and who knows, the tall canadian may surprise us all this coming Sunday in Liege. But, he will have to deal with an on form and very motivated Rodriguez and with a Gilbert, who's form, may have finally arrived, just in time.

Back at It

Back in business after going into the non writing wilderness...but hopefully now I can write a little more every now and then about some pro races that I get to watch, and some of my thoughts while riding, or should I say, trying not to get dropped on rides.

Good Deeds

Friday morning I'm riding with Daniel at Hains Point and I noticed this guy on the Marina Side changing a flat tire, NBD (No Big Deal). We continue and finish our first lap, when I see the same guy, still on the Marina side, working on his tire, but it looked like he had walked down a bit further down. Interesting. Daniel and I chat away as our third lap is completed and the guy, who is still working on his wheel, is now about two hundred feet down from where he started. WTF?. I make a mental note of that and when our fourth lap comes to an end, the guy finally decided to cross over to the Golf course side, in the hope that someone would stop. As we ride by I asked him if he needed help and with a smile he replied, "YES!!!, actually I do". For some reason he couldn't get his rear wheel back on and straight. I took care of that while Daniel tigthen the breaks and made sure nothing was rubbing. He borrow my phone to call work to let them know he was going to be late and we were off. Feeling good about helping a fellow cyclist.
On the trail, after coming down the 14th Street bridge, a rider yells at us something that I couldn't understand...all I got was, "turtle!!". Daniel stop to see a small turtle crossing the path, in a tricky spot. He picked it up and put it on the side it was heading. Two good deeds in less than 20 minutes. A good day.
Yesterday on my way home from the 7AM ride, my friend Chance and I were beggining to feel the effects of an early morning wake up call, and 70 miles in the legs. Feeling the inevitable bonk approaching, we throttled back down and were talking about eating bacon, a sign that the bonking was now taking full effect. Before approaching the overpass by the airport, Chance announces to a walker and slower rider infront of us our intentions to pass them on their left. The walker heard us, but the weekend warrior, with his Ipod in full blast didn't hear the two calls Chance made and started to veer into our direction. Chance extends his arm to keep the rider at bay and to avoid a collision and rides off, but as soon as I went by the guy, he just yelled, "don't put your hand on me, you fucking a$$holes". Feeling loopy already from the bonk, and not wanting an escalation of things, I slowed down and told the guy all Chance did was to avoid a crash, no harm done. "F..k Off", he tells me. Classy. The thought of putting a water bottle accross his head briefly entered my mind, but again, the bonk had me thinking about peperonni pizza and cokes and not of an altercation with this guy. I guess for once, bonking had a positive effect.

Smacked

Even though the race ended almost two weeks ago, I just didn't have much time or energy to write about the last two days. But it went something like this:

Saturday's time trial was another logistical nightmare, with the organizers changing start times at will and without considering any of the riders' needs. Not that I was planning on smoking anyone, but it was a bit frustrating having to change plans every five minutes because nobody seemed to know what the hell was going on. Finally it was announced that the Masters A category would depart as soon as the last Masters B rider had completed the time trial. That gave me an extra hour to sit around and wait.
Time finally came to depart and since I had spotted a few others wearing their Ipods, I chose to do the same. Nothing like a little ZZ Top to get the legs going. Off I went and quickly settled into the uncomfortable time trial position and prepared myself for the next 30+ minutes of pure fun. The "pain" playlist on the Ipod was made specifically for this kinds of efforts and with the top Texas band rocking, followed by some AC/DC, Guns & Roses, Joan Jett, Ministry and a few others selections, it made the time go by quite fast. It also helped when the guy who started one minute behind blew by me. The only exciting thing was going down hill, tucked in on the aero bars and having two 18 wheelers pass me, creating a serious vortex that made for some fun few seconds.

Sunday's last stage had a bit more start time shannanigans from the organizers. I had noticed the team of the guy who had led the race for the first two stages, warming up quite early. That indicated one thing only, that the fight was going to go from the gun. As customary, the heat was oppressive when we started around 9:45am, but at least it meant we were going to be done before noon by all calculations and thus, avoid the serious blast from the sun and humidity.
Lined up and made small talk with a fellow rider, who wanted my contact info. Not soon had I started to give him my digits, the flag dropped and before I could clip in, the pack was single filed. It was an impressive display of firepower with the leader's team taking control of things, or at least, setting the pace so high that nobody could attack. At only 500 meters from the start, riders were popping and avoiding them was becoming quite hard since they were everywhere. Finally latched myself to the back of the pack and had thoughts of settling in for nice ride.
Those thoughts went quickly out the window when we hit the 180 turn at the bottom of a two step hill and the high pace never ceased. More riders were dropping and when I reached the top of the last step, there was a considerable gap between me and the pack, no man's land stuff. A glance back confirmed that the only two choices were, chase solo or wait for the second group that was forming behind. Decided to give chase, if anything, the chasers would catch me if my attempt failed. It did.
So I spent the next 42 miles in a group of 8, taking longer pulls to at least get a good workout out of the deal. The cool thing was because of the longer pulls, the other 7 asked me what we should do at the end. "we'll cross the line together, spread accross the road" I said...it made for a cool picture.

And that was that, my second participation at the Vuelta Masters a Chiriqui was fun, despite the craziness both on and off the road. The level this year was twice as high as last year's edition and when I got the results early Monday morning, I was happy with my 33er place overall. 65 riders started the Masters A class, with 48finishing. Now I think I will skip next year's edition and wait to move up to the B class. But things can change by July of 2011 and I can find myself pinning a number at this growing event.