After arriving late and driving around in circles as Rod Hernandez did his best Tom Simpson impersonation, David Gill and I found a place to park and set up our team compound. I have raced at Manzanita Park many times and simple love the place. I‘ve always enjoyed the courses here and today’s was no exception. With the rain we had the night before, the course was very soft and complete with a couple of small bogs. While I was out doing reconnaissance, I managed to flat my rear tubular clincher on my singlespeed. I dumped some sealant into the tire, but it would not seal. I wasn’t very upset about this as this tire was 2 seasons old and had certainly served me well. After swapping tires out I got on my geared bike and went back onto the course to warm up. While the upper section was drying out pretty quick, the lower portion particularly the grass was being chewed up pretty bad by the earlier classes. It was time for the Master 45+ A so I went to the grid.
After the first four pedal strokes I knew I was in big trouble! After running 2 laps at last week’s race, I kind of had an itch to go for a run so while I was at the gym on Thursday with Nancy, I hopped on the tread mill and ran 2 miles and then did a series of dead lifts, squats and clean and jerks. I’m an old gym rat and I’m quite familiar with these exercise, but I failed to take into account that I hadn’t practice them in a year and half and when I woke up on Friday, I could barely walk! I wasn’t much better on Saturday either. Sunday rolled around and I was still sore, but not nearly as bad. I warmed up and didn’t feel that bad, but as soon as the race started my legs screamed in pain and felt like to lifeless bags of cement!
During the race I did my best to bridge to Darrel Brokeshoulder and succeeded on the second lap, but almost immediately lost his wheel. The gap remained the same for the next couple laps, but Darrel and I were both catching Joe Miller. I knew I would have to
re-bridge back to Darrel before he caught Joe because I knew as soon as they hooked up they would start working together. I just couldn’t get there as my legs refused to cooperate. As anticipated Joe and Darrel started working together and rode away from me. For the last half of the race, my back became progressively tighter to the point I could barely pick up the bike to go over the barriers. I was very glad when this race was over! My back and legs felt so bad afterwards I abandoned any thought of racing in the singlespeed race later and instead I enjoyed the last couple of races and what had become a beautiful day!
After the first four pedal strokes I knew I was in big trouble! After running 2 laps at last week’s race, I kind of had an itch to go for a run so while I was at the gym on Thursday with Nancy, I hopped on the tread mill and ran 2 miles and then did a series of dead lifts, squats and clean and jerks. I’m an old gym rat and I’m quite familiar with these exercise, but I failed to take into account that I hadn’t practice them in a year and half and when I woke up on Friday, I could barely walk! I wasn’t much better on Saturday either. Sunday rolled around and I was still sore, but not nearly as bad. I warmed up and didn’t feel that bad, but as soon as the race started my legs screamed in pain and felt like to lifeless bags of cement!
During the race I did my best to bridge to Darrel Brokeshoulder and succeeded on the second lap, but almost immediately lost his wheel. The gap remained the same for the next couple laps, but Darrel and I were both catching Joe Miller. I knew I would have to
re-bridge back to Darrel before he caught Joe because I knew as soon as they hooked up they would start working together. I just couldn’t get there as my legs refused to cooperate. As anticipated Joe and Darrel started working together and rode away from me. For the last half of the race, my back became progressively tighter to the point I could barely pick up the bike to go over the barriers. I was very glad when this race was over! My back and legs felt so bad afterwards I abandoned any thought of racing in the singlespeed race later and instead I enjoyed the last couple of races and what had become a beautiful day! Photo by Steven Woo
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