8/6/06
This weekend was practically a Bucknell Cycling event as Charlie, Adam, Steve, Sam, the infamous Ron Marquette, and I raced in the Deodate Road Race on Saturday and the Doylestown Circuit Race on Sunday. To make things a little more clear, Deodate consisted of me, Ron, Charlie, Adam and Sam, while Doylestown was me, Charlie and Steve. Sam was with us at Doylestown too, but he was too busy being the World Champion in his World Champion Quickstep jersey to be racing. I also went to see Michael race at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome on Friday night with Sam, Adam, and Jason.
Overall, it was a great weekend, even though I can't say I finished anywhere worth mentioning, in either race. I finished both races with the main field, just on the back side of the main field as opposed to the front. Fortunately, Adam (1st at Deodate), Charlie (2nd at Deodate) and Steve (7th at Doylestown) had better luck than I did.
Other than that, it was a relaxing weekend and fun to have everyone racing together.
-big show
7/28/06
I know this is the second journal entry on the same day however this entry is about something completely different. I'm writing because yesterday I almost successfully completed my first real breakaway!
Hey, it was exciting for me at least. I have recently been doing a training crit every Thursday in Rockleigh, NY. It is a real race, but to those who are curious it is also a training race because you are allowed to drop out and then go back into the field. Once you drop out though, you are not allowed to mix in anymore and you cannot sprint with the group since there is a real race going on. The training race is every Thursday, starting in late June or early July and ends sometime in late August. They have a 1/2/3 race at 6:00 p.m. that’s an hour long plus two laps and a 4/5 race that’s 45 minutes plus two laps after that. As I am a Cat 4, I am still in the 4/5.
Anyway, with about a lap and a half to go one rider broke out of the pack and was dangling about 10-15 seconds in front. As we all came around for the last lap I was sitting in 5th position, watching the guys in front of me refuse to work to catch the lone breakaway. Eventually this confusion pushed me up to third position as we neared the Start/Finish for the last lap. Since I did not want to be sitting in third position with an entire lap to go I put my head down and took off after the break, took a quick look back, and no one came with me! Now I’m kind of freaking out because I haven’t really done this before, but I caught the breakaway with half a lap left.
I wasn’t sure if I could hold out and the guy in front of me was hurting too, so I let him grab my wheel in the hope that the two of us would work the last half of the lap to keep the field away. Unfortunately, I ended up pulling him around the last half and he went around me at the finish.
As I said, it was almost successful since I ended up with 2nd instead of 1st, but it was a good learning experience and I have a better idea of what I am capable of doing. For all of you next year who have never really broken out of the field on your own, give it a shot early in the season, or if you have some races now go for it. You may bury yourself, but you’ll learn a ton about your limits and what you can and can’t do.
-big show
7/28/06
For my second journal entry of all time I will be addressing the Deathride.
First, I hope that everyone checks out the Deathride at some point in their life and makes an attempt to ride it. It is a long, painful experience and worth the trip. From what I heard there were about 3,000 riders total, although I have not seen the number of finishers yet. For those who cringe every time they see triple chainrings, it’s an experience in which your legs will wish you had them. There are plenty of rest stops for food and drink throughout the course but eventually my legs couldn’t put out anymore and I had to take a couple quick breaks of my own in between the rest stops.
When I reached the last summit, I had been out there for about 10 hours and I would estimate 9 of which was spent on the bike, due to the rest stops. By the time I finished descending from the last summit and got to the car it was 11 hours total.
What were the highlights of my ride? Well, the night before was spent driving around a pitch black campground looking for a trailer with Lauren. We’re sketchy like that, but her friend Dave was supposed to be there. We ended up in a motel about 30 minutes away, leading a late start in the morning. During the ride the major highlight was the scenery. The ride took place in Marqueleeville (I probably spelled that wrong), California, which is not terribly far from Lake Tahoe. The ride is gorgeous and makes the climbs a bit more pleasant.
My favorite part of the ride was of course reaching the top of the last summit. It is a 15 mile mountain pass that flattens out after 6 miles, but then goes right on back up with 6 miles to go. The finish was followed by my own bout of nausea due to heat stroke and to add insult to injury, I had to ride back through a hail storm to get to the car. The best part about the hail storm was that it came out of nowhere, and standing at the summit I could see the clouds 15 miles in front of me, just waiting for me to arrive.
I’ll cut off the entry here, since I could probably write pages about this, but the ride was well supported and a great experience. I encourage everyone to check it out. Lauren is already telling me I have to do it again with her next year, and if I do, I expect more Bucknell kits on the road. You would be surprised by how many people cheered us on and had stories about Bucknell.
-big show
P.S. I almost forgot! Lauren was chased by a bear cub! Fortunately Momma Bear wasn’t nearby too.
So here I am, recognizing my journal's existence. Soon there will be a picture of me as well too, and I will consider myself part of the team.
I just came back from a great week on the west coast, culminating in a 130 mile Deathride. The 130 miles itself is not so scary, but throw in 15,000 feet of climbing and the name of the ride takes on a much more literal meaning. Fortunately I don’t think anyone died, but the ambulances were pretty active and I dealt with my own bout of heat stroke. I’ll be writing more soon with more details about the Deathride and what I’ll be doing as the summer continues. I know EVERYONE is anxiously awaiting, but patience is a virtue and I need to go walk my dog.
Until next time,
Big Show (it's almost natural for me to sign my name this way...weird)
