Sunday 29 March 2009

Fail

I had so much fun at Jeff Cup last year. Not so much this year. Last year our team really had the act together, this year not so much. Last year we managed to have a fairly fast race. Not so much this year. Going into the last lap it was a million fresh (or so I thought) guys there. With our team stuff not really working to plan I really had no clue what hand I really had or how to play it. Two guys went on a roller before the Blenheim turn, two more quickly go after them. I hesitate for a second, quickly move to the front before the turn, rail the turn and give a brief check under the shoulder. Huge gap back to the field and I'm halfway across the gap to the break, so I bust ass for the bottom part of the hill and catch the break. I'm sitting 5th of 5, just tacked on, but really pretty fresh. Towards the end of the false flat at the top of the hill, 3 and 4 decide things are doomed and stop going, and 1 and 2 use the moment of confusion to their advantage and keep going. I make the decision that no way is the field going to let them stay away. The field wasn't really that close to us, after all. Guys come up to us in drips and drabs but the field isn't really there in full force. Feeling guilty and stupid, I take a hard pull when the group catches me, to hopefully spark the chase. Not happening. The two held it the whole way. Great job to them. It was a great move at a great time in a cluster fook of a race. Also of note was the HPC guy's team mate, who blocked his behind off. The field let him ride on the front for a long while, which he gladly did. Without his effort, the break has way less of a chance of sticking. So to the guy who is going to get no official credit, I give a lot.

Salvaging a sprint was pretty much put paid when I had to unclip and put my foot down about 2 miles to go when one guy just went sideways into another and miraculously neither went down. It was pretty shocking to see the perp in that incident get himself going very aggressively and try to get his points, especially since that was definitely not the first time he'd done something like that during the race. Shouldn't there be some sort of self-imposed three strikes and you're out rule? I made up some ground after that but at that point there was no point.

Disappointing in extremis.

Hopefully the point about my dropping the field by going through a corner without slamming on my brakes adequately illustrates typical bike handling.

A high result was there for the taking, in the way that I would most have wanted it to happen, and I chundered it.

F.

3 comments:

x said...

well, i knew it would either be get away in a break or get dropped trying to do so.
-chris

Anonymous said...

I have done that epic choke once before - James Island Race, RI 2005. Learn from it. Let the sourness of the bile linger in you stomach. Taste it, roll it around your tongue, smell it like a 94' Cab. Then pledge that if you ever have a gap you are going to go for it. Because at least you know you gave it your all.

Ian

Sigberto Garcia said...

at least you had a flippin' chance.

the glass I picked out of my tire was pretty significant.