FLCC> Tuesday night B's

[Mark Rishniw]

Matt's description of the sufferfest is hard to match, let-alone 
surpass!  Hard to believe that somebody who raced Fitchburg a few 
weeks ago found this little back-o-nowhere pedal-turner the "most 
intense/prolonged suffering I've endured on a bike this season"!  And 
only 27 miles - barely a warm-up ride...

So, as the B's heard the close-to-suicidal course selection the A's 
were making, this fatboy was gonna have none of that.  Seeing that 
the pack was considerably thinned by the A-rider departure, I knew 
that there was not going to be much "hiding in the pack".

"Where the heck is Fatterer (oops, I mean Fitterer)?" I thought to 
myself.  Avoiding a spanking, I suspect.

We opted for the slightly less torturous, but no-less 
lactate-inducing single lap of Hurd, with an observatory 
finish.  Now, I must say that a couple of weeks ago, when we did this 
loop, I was the last of the B finishers.  And I noted that I had not 
raced an Observatory Hill Tuesday night for at least 3 years, always 
being wise enough to pull off when the climb up Ringwood began with a 
Melnychenko-type of move ("Oh, I just flatted", or "Darn, I have to 
get home to do dishes", or some other timely excuse).  So I was not 
necessarily embracing the idea of back-to-back Observatory Hill 
finishes, although I had put a few miles into my legs in the last 2 
weeks (thanks to Dr Matt Estill's comment that, based on my BMI, I 
was "technically obese", and my cholesterol measurements were 
reminiscent of a bad Spartacus movie ("The 300")).

We headed down midline, keeping the pace high enough to single-file 
the corner onto Irish-settlement-midline.  Occasional flyers went 
nowhere.  Up EHS the group was still together, and this time, I was 
not shelled by the pack.  Over the top, Felix "El Gatto" opened up a 
gap and stayed just ahead of the pack.  Hurd (Hurt) Rd came upon us, 
and Acidfest 08 began in earnest.  Jason VanS had pulled hard early 
and was now paying for it in spades.  I moved up a few wheels as the 
pansy-assed lycra-wearin' latte-drinkin' skinny boys pirouetted and 
pas-de-deuxed up the hill ahead.  Around the right-hand bend, I 
stood, shifted into my 19 and did what I do best - mashed.  I closed 
down the gap, but it cost me and over the top of the hill, several 
riders I had passed caught back up.  Unlike Matt, I wasn't wearing a 
heart rate monitor and didn't have a functioning computer, so I was 
spared seeing heart rate numbers reminiscent of my blood pressure 
measurements...  But the gap to the leading 4-some was small, and by 
the corner onto midline, we were as one.

We started up EHS again, with El Gatto still putting the hurt on a 
bunch of guys.  Robbie "Big Ring" Seltzer was hangin' tough, as was 
Seltzer Junior (I think we should ban anybody weighing less than half 
my weight from racing with us up hills!!!!).  Randy and Blue Man made 
a move up EHS, Jack covered it and then went "pop".  I shifted into 
my 17 and jumped around him to bridge up to the leading 4-5 riders, 
where Shenstoni seemed to be suffering near the back.  A small gap 
opened over the top, but a couple of hard pulls and we had them 
back.  As I got to the front, I attacked, taking a skinny Cornell kid 
with me, but the bunch wasn't havin' none-o-that.  We turned onto 
Ringwood.  I knew this was it for me, so I put in one more hard 
attack towards the first bridge, and then, like a Roman (or should 
that be Ukrainian?) candle, I fizzled out.  The front 7-8 riders went 
by, while Robbie and I began the tempo climb to the finish. Other 
riders were popping ahead of us, but we couldn't seem to close them 
down.  Somehow, out of nowhere, came Jack and Charles.  Jack took me 
on the final corner, and held me off to the finish line.  David (man 
in red?) finished just ahead of El Gatto in a tight race for 
first.  Randy was somewhere in the mix as well.  And I didn't finish 
last (yippeee).

Back in the carpark, Jim Eagen and I were chatting about how hard, 
fun and good these rides are.  Jim was commenting that he didn't 
think there was a shortage of tough racers here, but the cameraderie 
on and off the bike make the Ithaca Tuesday nights something special.  I agree.

Donnie-boy, you're in for some serious hurting next few weeks...