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

[Annette Marquis]

Ano,

That was hilarious!  Please race again so you can send
another entertaining race report!

Annette

--- mgarcia at borgwarner.com wrote:

> 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 
> 
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> 


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