Carter's Mega Baby Sale

I went out to ride with David Lee and Jaime went to Carter's for the baby sale. Hot action for the Labor Day weekend. Plus a Club Med xGO fest at Scott an Megan's with Scott Barney, Betsy, Julie Ha Ha (and kids), Andrew and Apple, and Sholeh (and Conner).

Boulder Crit Series #4

That concludes Crit racing for 2008 for me. I worked hard enough to be happy with that race but didn't make the break so I can be sad too. Poor little me. Finished in a group behind the break group and that was that. Nothing good, nothing bad.

Joe Taddeucci took a nasty crash. Hope he recovers quickly.

HART Crit

It was back, the return of the HART Crit after a one year leave of absence. This a great race. Grind up a hill, sweep into a slight downhill with a cross wind, corner into the wind then corner downhill into a little S turn and go back uphill through the start-finish. The wind was furious and there is nothing to slow the pack so no breaks stayed away. I was basically packfill for the whole race, trying to stay out of the wind. That came back to haunt me, deservedly so, when I tried to move up on the last lap and got nicely boxed in. Finished mid-pack.

It was great to ride with Jared again even if for a brief stint on the second leg of his double dippage. The tornado was an added bit of excitement for the spectators.

Rosebud made an appearance on T-Bone's blog.

Boulder Crit Series #3

Got to the race a little late and hurried to get dressed, registered and onto the back of the Cat 4 race in time to warm up. Nothing like 25+ MPH warm ups to get you moving.

For whatever reason, the officials called up a 45+ guy and gave him a 20 to 30 second head start. I was sitting 3rd on the first lap and the head-start guy was up the road. The two monkeys in front of me were looking for a way to drop back in the pack so instead of pulling I decided that attacking and bridging up to head-start guy would be fun. It took me a full lap to reach him. When he saw me come up he said, "oh sweet!" We worked together for a a fair amount of laps before the pack brought us back. After getting caught, I drifted back and took a little rest time. Eventually I was back towards the front spending the rest of the race either hanging on for dear life or trying to move back up. The pack seemed relatively easy to move around in. I had my chance to really move up in the last few laps but lacked the commitment to go around the front edge of the pack. There is something about a lot of riders, especially in the 3s, that keeps them going all the way to the front. They will go up until they find the angled edge of the front but won't pull through. If you have room to get around them and the commitment, you can move yourself into top 5 position without too much trouble. I lacked commitment.

The last lap was pretty furious. I took the inside line and sprinted as hard as I could up the right side. I went pretty early and again lacked the commitment to sprint harder since I was nowhere near top 10. I sat up a little before the line and apparently drifted a bit to the right. I heard a scream not unlike a piglet getting castrated. That was Lee who was coming up on the right. Sorry about that Lee. He and I finished in the middle of the pack. So good race for both. Lee was responsible for a nice collection of attacks and covering some of the pro guy's attacks. That dude can motor.

North Boulder Park Crit

I popped. Hard. Sad.

WTF

October...oops I mean August 16

Here's some pics from today's activities and the snowy weather.

Cletis McFetus is a rambunctious little monkey. The Ultra-Sound lady had a hard time getting a picture with all of the moving around.

Wicked new score from the Senior Center Sell-Yo-Extra-Crap-A-Thon.

Rosebud Impersonates a Harbor Seal

Check this out you bitches

Personal, home-based laser hair removal.

Product Endorsement

Spenco 2nd Skin Moist Burn Pads

Go crash your bike, get road rash, stand in the shower and cry, stick this stuff on it, smile.

Bike and Baby

As I laid there last night trying find a position that was not on the road rash, Cletis decided to do some swimming; so I got to feel Cletis McFetus move around. That was cool.

Training today was good. No parts, hip, shoulder, etc., were acting up so it's game back on for this weekend. North Boulder Park Crit is a great race. It was featured in the Coors Classic back in the day. Basically the course is technical with an all-out drag strip in the middle of it and small hill that isn't much until you've had to go up it the 30th time. Saturday we go the doctor for the 20th week electro-scopey-thing baby viewing. An action packed weekend is coming up.

Prospect Criterium

Wow..what a continuous series of errors for what was overall a great race. I had a mechanical and had to go to the pit after the first turn. So flat wheel in, heavy-ass rear, training wheel out. I missed a few laps since I had to walk it back to the pit. I got back in at the back/middle of the pack and had to repair what was a fantastic start off the line. It took at least 5 or 6 laps to get back up to the front. This course had a very technical series of turns (4) then opened up a little for two more turns into the start/finish. Finally I was back in the front 5 to 10 riders and was happy to be there.

The attacks started up and we, Vitamin Cottage, were responsible for a lot of them. Sharkey made a good attempt kind of early. He hesitated a little and I yelled for him to go harder. A few guys started to bridge up with me on their wheel. Unfortunately the pack didn't have a good sense of humor about early attacks and brought us back quickly. Then Kenny attacked enough times to make you dizzy. Then Sharkey kept at it. Rob was also in the front for most of the race and road really well. We were pretty much sticking it to the field every chance we could. I was starting feel like it was my turn to go off the front when a guy 2 or 3 wheels in front of me clipped the barrier on turn one. There was a decent pile as a result and I did the tip over thing, going to the pit for the second time.

After getting back on, I was working pretty hard to get back to the front. The pack had been whittled down to about half those who had started; this course was way too short and technical to keep lapped riders. It was getting close to 5 to go and I needed to move up. I started to pick off a fair amount of riders in front of me. Kenny was in front of me after one of his attacks and looked like he couldn't close a widening gap in front of him. I came around and closed it in two turns bringing him with me. I was feeling really good; maybe because I had had so many free laps.

The pack was pretty strung out and going into turn 1 I clipped my pedal and went down hard. After coming to a stop I stayed down partially out of shock and partially convince I was going to be piled upon. Fortunately we were going around 30 mph so I slid clear of the guys behind me. I got up and after asking for my bike back from the Marshall, started heading for the pit for the 3rd time. I had dislodged the bead from rear tire and it blew up. I was out of pit wheels and that was it for my race. Jaime had never really seen me in a crash and was a little freaked out. It is probably not a good experience to see your spouse destroy the right side of his kit (my left sock and left glove survived), tear open his bike pants and get road rash from shoulder to ankle. I did most of my skidding on my head so no real damage there.

Ryan the medic guy, who I had met a few weeks before at a post-race pizza party, did a great job cleaning the road crud out of the wounds. If you ever have the desire to slide across the pavement and remove skin layers, Ryan is your guy. Jaime and I then took off towards home stopping at 3 different pharmacies for supplies. I drove slower than normal trying to postpone the inevitable post-crash shower which always makes me cry.

I am not sure how Kenny, Rob and Sharkey ended up but there were definitely a bunch of primes that went to them. A really good race for VC. We road well together without having to verbally communicate during the race.

Boulder Crit Series #1

That was a great race. I can't say that I was great but it was definitely worth the drive for the workout. Boulder is great place for a mid-week crit series; there's always at least one pro dude who shows up. Last night it was Danielson who showed to initiate the attacking along with a good collection of Vitamin Cottage guys and some of the remaining Aussie kids who haven't gone home.

I blocked a bunch at the beginning and got into a rotating echelon with some of the elite VCers. That only lasted a few laps for me. Those guys are way stronger and I needed to get back into the pack and recover a bit. Eventually I found myself in the back pack. The "dropped" are always the dumbest riders and can't seem to accept their fate.

There is always at least one who has to attack the group instead of working with us. At one point I said to my teammate, "holy shit...it's an echelon...sweet. We're working together." The next corner our dipshit du jour, who had been sitting on the back, came around and attacked us. Basically that was the last time we tried to work together. If you aren't with us, you're against us.

I sat up for a lap to recover a bit and fix my glasses; it was dark and I couldn't see anything (Couldn't see with or without those things). I got back on our group as they came around and sat on the dipshit. With 2 laps to go, I told my teammate that I would lead him out. The course was about a .7 mile lap and with one to go I ramped it up about halfway. Unfortunately I gapped him on the 90 degree turn into the finish and the leadout didn't really work out. We did effectively drop everyone in our group though. It was a good race, all-in-all and I'll be back next week.

World's Tiniest Bike Pants

Cletis McFetus got him or herself a pair of bike pants today from REI. They cost $1.83.

Bannock Street Criterium

Nothing fantastic to report for Bannock. There was a 4 man break with one of our Vitamin Cottage guys in it, Mike Sharkey. I was stuck back in the pack for the whole race. Of course there were some ridiculous crashes to entertain the masochists. I finished up about mid-pack.

I should add that this is probably one of my best Bannock crits. When I was a 35/4, I was taken out on the first turn with 2 laps to go. Nice road rash and either a bruised or cracked tailbone which kept me uncomfortable on bar stools for about a year. Then a blowout in the 35s two years in a row. So I'll take a pack finish for that one and smile.