Yesterday was a weird day.  I went to Lawrence to see a chiropractor, then get a blood test.  The first went super, the 2nd not so.  The Labcorp in Lawrence wasn’t in operation so we were sent to Kansas City.  The first medical place that had a Labcorp was closed, so we had to go to another.

The blood test was next to awful.  It took 3 separate needle sticks to draw 3 test tubes of blood. But it was done.

Next was a stop at the Apple Store in Leawood.  My phone has been acting up for the past 3 weeks, every since I had the screen replaced.  The appointment was at 12:20, but took a really long time.  When I was waiting, I got a call from a friend from Arkansas, Kris French, who said he had read on my website that I was looking for a Pro team to ride on in Joe Martin.

I told him I was and he said he could help out.  He said the Seasucker/Guttenplan Coaching team was needing riders and he was sure I could ride for them.  I told him great.  Right after that, the guy at the Apple Store took my phone and reset all the setting so it was pretty much erased.  Then he told me that they needed to put a new screen into it again and I would have to leave it.

I told him I wasn’t going to leave the phone and I needed the settings restored.  He said that it might take up to an hour to download from the iCloud.  I told him I didn’t have an hour.  He said to do it when I got back to wifi.  So I left.

I left with a phone that didn’t have any numbers in it.  I didn’t know how to get back ahold of Kris or much of anyone else.  So I drove to Fayetteville and got to the race hotel in time for registration.  I told a few guys my plight and was finally directed to the head UCI official.

He told me that the roster was set and he wouldn’t change it that it was set 72 hours before the race.  Man, is that is a stupid rule.  It is Joe Martin for God’s sake, it isn’t the World Championships. Even if it was the World Championships, you should be able to add riders within 3 days.

I could list lots of times this rule hasn’t been applied, in way, way bigger races than Joe Martin. Like the Tour.  But, it is what it is.

Like I said yesterday, the 1/2 race is going to be a ton harder than the Pro race.  It is real bike racing.  I don’t really know many of the riders in the race, so it is going to very hard to read. The 1/2 race pretty much does the exact same race as the Pro/1 race, but one lap shorter on Saturday, which is 20 something miles.  It should be fine.

I hope to get out  this morning and ride over to the new time trial course and ride up it at least once.  It is 3 miles instead of 2, heading up the opposite way in Devil’s Den State Park. Pretty hard climb.  I got to ride 20 miles or so yesterday and didn’t feel too bad.

Anyway, I didn’t get back from eating, then I ran Tucker and feed him, etc. until late.  And it was after 1 am before I got to bed, so I missed a ton of sleep.  Glad I headed down early for a relaxing day before the start of a stage race.  BTW, when I went to bed, my phone said 3 hours remaining until restored and it still isn’t done this morning.

 

 

Can’t say I am too please with yesterday’s ride at Joe Martin’s time trial.  I’m not all that bummed, but the result was so mediocre it irks me some.  I have a few excuses, but in reality, if I would have ridden perfect, I wouldn’t have been all that pleased either.

The new time trial course is in Devil’s Den State Park still, 25 miles south of Fayetteville.  But the course goes up a hill on the opposite side of the park that has been used historically.  The hill isn’t much harder, it goes up about to about the same elevation.  But it is steeper at the bottom, with lots of switchbacks, then gets faster at the top, like a 40+mph short descent.

I started nearly last in the 1/2’s race, which was at 4:30.  I had went over early and had ridden the hill a couple times.  It is a little less than 3 miles.  I felt okay, but the pollen in the park was crazy.  Like super thick.  Descending down in the climb it was so bad that I could hardly blink.

I talked to a bunch of different guys about it.  It seems about 50 % of the guys I talked to thought it was horrible, the others didn’t even notice it.  Funny how that is.

I rode about 20 miles earlier, then another 10 before the time trial.  Here is how bad I was.  I warmed up on the old time trial course and averaged higher wattage warming up than during the race. Pretty bad power allocation, huh?

They say you are supposed to start easy finish hard.  I started hard and finished…. slow.  I caught my 30 second rider about 1/2 way up the hill and he went by me again about 500 meters to go.  Pretty terrible.  The last km was so bad, that if I had the 15 seconds I gave up I might have been somewhat pleased.  I started my timer with my 30 second rider and coming up to the finish, forgot  I should be subtracting 30 seconds, so was over 11 minutes, disgusted, so pretty much gave up. That was a huge error. I finished 40th out of a hundred and twenty guys, but in the Pro race it would have been in the 120’s out of 150.  Ouch.  Results are here.

So, I was a little rusty.  The pollen turned out to hurt too.  I did a couple nasal rinses and my throat still hurts this morning.  It seems better in Fayeteville than Devil’s Den.  I hope it isn’t an issue the next few days.

My new team-mate, Alex Hoehn, rode pretty great.  He caught me, he started 30 seconds back, and finished 7th.  He is young, I think he is just 18 or so, and the result was great.  It will be fun watching him during the 110 mile road race this afternoon.

One odd thing I noticed, and need to ask someone about it.  A bunch of the guys warming up for the Pro race, warm up in their street clothes.  It seems like probably 25% of the guys riding up the climb were just wearing baggy shorts and t-shirts instead of cycling clothes.  Same with the women.  I have no idea what that is all about.  It wasn’t that hot out.  Maybe they were going to race in super tight, hot skinsuits or something, but you still would think that they would warm up in team kits.  Pretty weird.

Last night we went over and had dinner with the Olathe Subaru guys.  Most of them ride for TradeWind Energy for cyclo-x so we are all pretty much team mates.  Benn and Garrick both had decent times up the hill, 10:26 ish, so they are looking good.

I’m riding better than the result, I think.  Maybe not, but I think so.  The next three days should be good.  I wanted to race this event for training.  Getting multiple race days in is important to get to a higher level of fitness.  At least for me it is.

   Tucker has been eating a ton, but is still super skinny.