FLCC> Tuesday Night A Race Report And Commentary (long)

[mgarcia at borgwarner.com]

Better late than never ...

"So how come no one writes up Tuesday night race reports any more?"
I asked Glenn, riding back down from the Observatory on Mt. Pleasant.
"Because it takes up a lot of time, and I'm too busy" came the reply, 
or some words to that effect.  Now I know, he is right about that.
Maybe if I *just* wrote a race report I could make it short.  But somehow
I always feel the need to add my musings and rantings, which makes
for a nice long boring read.

-> IF YOU WANT TO JUST READ THE RACE REPORT, SCROLL DOWN TO THE SECTION
-> THAT SAYS 'RACE REPORT BEGINS HERE'.  IF YOU WANT TO READ MY RAMBLINGS
-> ABOUT PRE-RACE ANXIETY, KEEP READING.

I'm an indecisive and anxious person by nature.  Tuesday nights tend to 
bring out the worst in my indicisiveness and anxiety.  First of all comes
the weather forecast check.  I don't like to get wet or I melt.  Hmmm,
40% chance of storms. If its 20% or 30%, I typically risk it.  If its 50% 
or greater, I usually don't risk it.  If its 40%, then I check the radar
every ten 
minutes starting around 3PM and fret about what to do.

Then appears a special weather statement that looks like this.

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON... 

A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE THROUGH NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA THIS AFTERNOON. 
THUNDERSTORMS ARE LIKELY TO FORM ALONG THE FRONT, WITH SOME STORMS RAPIDLY 
BECOMING SEVERE. 

THE BEST CHANCE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE BETWEEN 1 PM AND 6 PM. 
THE ENTIRE REGION HAS THE POTENTIAL TO RECEIVE SEVERE WEATHER, BUT THE 
HIGHEST PROBABILITY WILL BE FROM THE NORTHERN TIER OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
THROUGH THE SOUTHERN TIER OF NEW YORK, AND INTO THE NORTHWESTERN CATSKILLS
REGION. 

Now I'm thinking about not going.  Some emails float around work with
the subject line "Should be a fun ride tonight......bring your body armor."
Mike Sobol thinks it will miss us because he has already been hailed on
twice
this year.  I decide to check the weather radar at 4PM and make the call
then.

After the weather check comes the family check.  Leaving my wife to tend
three
kids through dinner and get them ready for bed (after a whole day of being
with
them) while I am out playing on the bike is not her idea of quality time.
Still, 
she lets me get out on occasion.  Our two girls are with their grandparents
in Albany for a few days, so that makes it a bit easier this week.  Except
that
our godson has a birthday party that I am going to miss.  If the weather
turns
bad, then I will be there.  The joke is that I am a 'bad-weather friend'.
Or is
it a joke? I can't tell.  This is worse than usual, it's only 1PM and I am
anxious 
already.  

Before I know it, its 4PM and Mike stops by to ask if I am going to do a
pre-ride
with him.  After more sighing and agonizing I get changed and follow Mike to
East Hill.
I can always change my mind, skip the race, and go home when we get back,
right?  Right.
Besides, I'll feel good about doing this when it's all over.

Mike and I take our usual route, ambling over Snyder Hill, then Landon and
Lounsberry, 
returning via Thomas and Ellis Hollow Creek.  I like these roads.  The
weather seems 
nice, and I think maybe I will stay and do the race after all.  This is only
my 
second Tuesday night race of the year.  Maybe I'll ride with the B's.  We'll
see ...

We gathered with the crowd at HSBC.  Seems like a smaller crowd than usual.
Danny is there, but I don't see Andy M, Scott, Andrew B, Glenn, or any of
the 
usual enforcers that I know.  That might make for a less painful A race.  
At the last minute, I see Andy, Glenn, Ryan M, and a few other A's show up.
Uh oh, so much for an easy race.

Riding out to Ringwood, I chat a bit with Mark Rishniw.  He promptly gets a
flat.  
I catch up to Andy M, hoping maybe if I chat with him, he will also get a
flat.  
It doesn't work. He reminds me of the 1995 Empire State Games team time
trial, when I
crashed on the last turn before the finish, slowing the team up just enough
to
miss out on a medal by a few seconds.  He loves to tell that story.  He is
probably
getting back at me for trying to give him a flat tire.  I change the subject
to
the Tour and how the Ukranians are doing (Andy is of Ukrainian descent, and
I am 
50% Ukrainian).

Finally we are at the top of Ringwood and the racecourse is announced.  The
A's will
go up Hurd, then Ringwood and finish on Mt. Pleasant.  In a moment of
delirium I
decide maybe it won't be so bad, so I decide to go with them.

->
->  RACE REPORT BEGINS HERE.
->

Off we roll down Midline at a relaxed pace.  I still can't get over how nice
the
pavement is, even though it has been like a year or more since they
resurfaced it.
No more anxieties now; I'm committed to this and just need to see it
through.
Pretty soon, the pace picks up and we are strung out at over 30 mph.
Somebody up
there wants to go fast but I don't know who it is because I'm hanging out at
the back.

Another group is off the front, and we take a few pulls and reel them in.
Down the
rollers to Rte 79, then we approach the turn onto Ellis Hollow as a group.
We make 
the turn onto Ellis Hollow, and there about 100 yards in front of us is a
big John 
Deere Farm tractor going slower than we are.  I wonder if we will neutralize
the race
until a convenient time to pass, or if we will just be dumb and pass on the
double
yellow.  Silly me, of course we will pass it.  We charge recklessly around
the 
tractor and up Ellis Hollow.  The look on the face of the tractor driver
suggests that he is not used to being passed by a pack of crazed cyclists.

Normally I like to put in a good effort up Ellis Hollow to help string
things out a bit.
However I have learned the hard way (the 'Hurd' way?) that if thou art
planning to race 
up Hurd, thou mustn't kill thyself on Ellis Hollow, or else thine legs will
not have a 
chance to recover before thou climbest up Hurd.  So I more or less stayed
tucked 
on Ryan Morris's wheel over the top, only to see a small group up the road
(with Danny 
in it) once the road flattened out.  Uh oh, time to chase.  So much for not
killing myself.
Well, I didn't kill myself.  But I took a few pulls.

We catch the escapees just as we turn onto Hurd.  On paper, Hurd is not
quite as bad a 
climb as Ringwood.  But I find it mentally harder because it starts steeper
from the 
get-go, and then flattens enough to allow some big-ring attacks.  By 'big
ring attacks'
I am referring to other people's big rings, not mine.   I didn't really know
what to expect, not having raced much this year.  But I found myself able to
keep pace
with the leaders (except Danny, of course) only killing myself a little.
Once the road 
starts to flatten a bit, that is the spot where people (like Glenn) usually
launch 
attacks that leave me struggling to respond.  I found myself at the front
waiting to 
hear the familiar sound of a derailleur behind me being shifted into
successively 
smaller rear cogs.  Then I thought to myself, "well, if I keep the pace high
enough,
maybe no one will feel like attacking."  (I finally learned something from
all these
recent years of following the Tour).  So I slowly ramped up the speed to
discourage
anyone from charging ahead, and the tactic seemed to work.  Out of the
corner of my
eye, I saw Twinkie spectating on the other side of the road, apparently
recovered 
from his flat.  At least I think it was him.  Or maybe he hired a look-alike
because
he was back robbing the HSBC bank and needed an alibi.  Ya never know!
Anyway, where
was I?  Oh yes, going up Hurd painfully fast.  Over the top of Hurd there
emerged a group
of four - Glenn, Danny, Andy M, Matt Schectman, and myself.  I guess that is
five,
but I must have forgotten to count myself.  Maybe there was another body
there, not sure.
That would be six.  I can't do math when my heart rate is over 190 beats per
minute.

Until this point, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get in the
front group
over Hurd.  After this point, it became an unpleasant surprise.  Glenn
seemed to have
some preconceived notions about not getting caught by any chasers.  Danny
seemed pretty
excited to finally start getting a workout.  Andy is just always excited,
period.
Keeping up with a bunch of excited cat 1s and 2s is not a lot of fun.  I
could be
sitting on my deck drinking a cold beer right now, but instead I'm ruining
an otherwise
pleasant Tuesday evening expending calories needlessly.  

Down to Rte 79 we flew, then over to Ellis Hollow.  No tractors this time!
I sat on
Glenn's wheel up Ellis Hollow.  Over the top, I am still trying to take a
pull here 
and there but being largely unsuccessful.  Poor Matt ... I think we barely
dropped 
him on Ellis Hollow.  Or maybe he was lucky that he got to slow down a tad.

Finally I give up on trying to take pulls on the flats, and I just
concentrate 
on holding on for dear life.  Once in awhile I glance up to see various
riders 
riding in the opposite direction from us, but I don't know what groups they
are 
from or where they are going.

I like to play a game at the finish of the Tuesday night races.  I call it
the '1k-
to-go' game.  Actually it is more of a cop-out than a game.  But
'1k-to-go-game'
sounds better than '1k-to-go-cop-out'.  Anyway, it is based on the Tour de
France
rule that any mishaps in the final 1k of a flat stage result in everyone
getting the
winner's finish time.  Or something like that.  Except in my game, it works
for hilly
races also and you don't need to have any mishaps.  My goal is always to get
to within 
1k or thereabouts of the finish with the lead group, then let them go to
sprint it out 
amongst themselves while I roll in for last place.  I figure I can expend
the energy 
to sprint, and end up last, or I can just accept my place and not hurt my
legs too much.

So my main goal now is to just get close to the top of Ringwood with Glenn
and Danny.  
Then I can let them go.  We roll up Ringwood to the bridge, and sure enough
I am starting to
see stars.  Where the heck did Andy go?  Turns out he never made the turn
onto Ringwood,
but I don't know this at the time.  Would it be easier or harder if he was
here?  
Oh well, doesn't matter now.  Up, up around the turn, to the last steep bit,
trying 
to stay on Glenn's wheel.  Just as I am coming unglued, we crest the hill
and I manage 
to claw my way back to Glenn and Danny as they increase their speed.  Oh
boy, that was
dumb.  Now I can't relax yet, I have to stay on and work a bit more.  For
sure, they will
drop me once we turn onto Midline and then I can take it easy, I think.  We
turn onto
Midline.  Oh blast, they aren't dropping me.  Can't they just attack one
more time and
put me out of my misery?  We turn onto Mount Pleasant, the last climb.  I
wonder if Glenn
and Danny are trying to be nice to me in their own way.  Even if I wanted to
sprint
(which I don't), it wouldn't be right, given all the wheel-sucking that I
did.  Plus
it seems like a painful idea and I am not getting paid to do this.  Just 
before the dip, I bail out, leaving Danny and Glenn to sprint it out and I
crawl in
just after them.  Matt S and Field F roll in shortly afterwards, followed by
Nick R 
and a few others I might have missed.  Sorry about that.

It sure feels good to finish one of these darned races.  A beautiful view of
the sunset, 
friendly chatting, and a leisurely ride back to the parking lot makes it all
worthwhile.
Maybe I will be able to do another one before the summer is over.

Good luck to anyone racing at Owasco this weekend ... I'm hoping to get a
chance
to sit on my deck, drink some beer, and learn how to relax.

Now, how about a B report?

Cheers,
Ano

"The less I ride, the faster I get."



Mariano Garcia 
BorgWarner Morse TEC Inc.
Ithaca Technical Center
770 Warren Rd.    Ithaca NY 14850
Ph: 607-266-2136 (desk) 607-266-2243 (recep)
FAX: 607-257-5033
email: mgarcia at morse.bwauto.com