|
|
Roz Puleo - Sport Senior II
Hey Guys - Just wanted to say that CR had a great showing at the Wahoo this
past Sunday. Dan Walsh, Tom Merrill, Jay Cormier, Ron Salb, Jeff
Whittingham, Rob Follansbee and myself all raced, and had a great showing!
Jeff rocked the expert class, placing a solid 7th in Senior 2!! In his
first race, Ron Salb kicked tail in novice, coming in 4th in Senior 2! And
Jay won the novice vet 2 class! Tom had a solid showing in his "new" Vet 2
class, as did Dan. Rob still managed a solid 6th place in Sport Vet 1
despite the fact that he flatted. A newcomer to Crank, John Pinkham, placed 2nd in the Novice Senior II.
I came in 3rd overall for Sport women
(and second in my class), though on the results it said 2nd overall, so I
don't know what happened to the other woman's results. My only "snafu" was
right at the starting line, I kicked out of my pedals.....it took me a few
"deer in the headlights" minutes to get myself back on track, but by then I
was way in the back of the pack. Actually, I was behind the pack.....but I
fought my way back to the front of the pack and jockeyed with one woman the
entire time, until she ultimately got me in the end (but for some reason,
her result disappeared).
So great job, guys! Good luck at Clough State Park, I'm taking the yellow
and black out to NYS to race a six hour endurance race near Syracuse.
Roz
Jeff Whittingham - Expert Senior II
The best word to describe how I feel after this weekend's race is relief.
There's been a whole lot of pedaling leading-up to this first race of the
season... To prep my rig for the race, Jamie let me borrow his personal
wheelset - some crossmax ust's - a big improvement over my ryhno lites (not
so lites) and he gave me some rippin' deals on some stiffer cranks (xtr) and
a nice lite fork with adjustable lock-out. Nice, nice upgrades on the
Litespeed for this season and for few more. Got to get my own hoops, but all
in good time. Support your local bike shop (Western Cycle!) - those guys are
the ones takin' care of ya'!
My goals for the day included beating 1:50 on the clock and staying with a
couple of guys who had beaten that time the year before. I'd ridden a 1:27
last year as a Sport over a shorter 3-lap (19mile) course and figured if i
could be a minute faster per lap, plus do the extra lap for being an Expert,
my legs were on-track to meet my season goals - but i've sure had a lot of
time to wonder if they would be.
I lined-up near the back of Senior II as I thought that was appropriate.
Within seconds of the start (involves a guy saying "go") I had a ton of dust
in my eyes and had completely forgotten Harry's advice to stay to the left.
Big mistake. I got dumped into a mud pit which ground me to a near stop and
into last place - or close to it. Wow, what a great way to kick-off the
season! With some rapid eye blicking to clear the dust from my eyes, i
gained speed and made the first turn onto the course. The adrenaline from
being so far back pushed me to immediately make passes and improve my
position - and in that action i discovered the answer to the question i'd
been asking myself since January.
By mile 2 I had moved into 5th place or so and had surprised the crap out of
myself - and if it wasn't for my incessant gaps for air, i'd have been
smiling! I did, however, sing some Stones later in the race - for some
reason, "You can't always get what you want ... repeat ... and if you try
sometime, you get what you need" was in my head. You really have to sing
that with Mick's inflection for the full effect... now i'm singing it again.
I digress. Once the roadies and more experienced guys got organized and into
a group, their pace quickened and I found myself spit-out the back-end of
their train. Wasn't sure of my placement on the course, but was happy with
my legs and felt like it was all working-out like it should. Of course, as I
sit here two days later I wonder if i played it wrong, went hard early to
catch-up due to being so far back off the start, used too much energy, then
missed-out on sharing wheels. I guess I need to race more to find out, but
know that no amount of work this year - or any year - will make-up the 9mins
Ben Moody put on me. Maybe 4 more mins next year (yeah and like 200 more
yearly hours of training to get 'em), but 9 is an eternity. By the way,
that's like 50hours of training for to gain 1 minute on the Wahoo course
using this year's increase in hours as a basis... Scary analysis.
The rest of the race was pretty typical. Got passed, stayed with that guy,
passed him back... got passed by a couple top Veterans as they raced towards
the lead group from their time stagger of 1min behind us Senior II's. Felt
good, was happy, and worked hard throughout the race. Had medium-level
discomfort from stomach cramping starting at mile 2 and lasting for much of
the race, but nothing disabilitating - just need to pinpoint the right mix
of fuels the morning of an event as this happened a few times last year as
well (any advice here is appreciated!). The good news was that I had plenty
of energy and never felt like I was bonking, so i'll take some cramping to
have steady energy. The oranges they handed-up at the water area were a
nice, refreshing surprise as well... interesting the things that make a race
- for me it was the oranges! And meeting my goals, of course!
In the end, rode a 1:48:43 and finished 7th in Senior II, 13th in category.
With two seasons of racing under my belt, I found myself much more relaxed
while standing at the start and throughout the race. I didn't feel compelled
to ride any pace other than what my internal engine told me was correct and
my splits were relatively consistent from lap to lap with the exception of
the first lap. However, it took more out of my legs than a Sport race would
have. Not sure if that's pace, milage or both. In the past, my legs have
felt pretty lively hours after a race - with one of my best training days
the day after an event. But now, two days after Wahoo, the legs are more
weary than usual, but not dead...
- Jeff
|
|
|
