FLCC> More action from the Tuesday night B's

[Felix Naschold]

Adding to Mark's B notes:

Since I wisely/foolishly decided not to commit to the A's suicide 
course, I thought I'd at least commit my own personal suicide on the B's 
loop. So after I found myself alone at the first EHS top I thought I 
might as well hang on and see what happens. The pack got close to me 
near the bottom of Hurd, but at the top I had enough of a gap to 
continue my suicide mission, this time trying to hold off what looked 
like a threesome of red shirts down Midline. (Later Marko tells me that 
for a while it was just him. I must have missed that hunkered down and 
trying to peek under my shoulder. Company would have been welcome!). If 
climbers talk about their power to weight ratio, how to descenders 
measure themselves? Weight to frontal area? Try as I might to stay in an 
aero position down the hill, I think I don't measure well on that 
statistic: I am too tall for my weight. So the inevitable happened as 
the pack swallowed me up turning onto 79.

A bit more action going up EHS again, but everyone was still together 
until Twinkie Voigted us to bottom of the last climb (with Ringwood our 
own personal Hautacam) where the field started to thin. When Dave (Mark, 
he was in a Cornell shirt. The man in red was Owen, I believe.) casually 
started chatting about bike frames just before the last Ringwood kicker 
I felt that this was going to be tough. The two of us crested together. 
Owen did a monster bridge catching us just before the final 90 degree 
left turn on Mt Pleasant. Up the final climb to the finish Owen paid for 
his efforts first. 200 yards later my legs reminded my that parts of 
them had already committed suicide in the earlier breakaway, letting 
Dave sprint away to take the line. Another great Tuesday night.

By the way, yesterday was Gil's birthday. And how does he decide to 
celebrate? With two flats and front derailleur problems. Hope you have 
better luck during the remainder of your 38th year.


Mark Rishniw wrote:
> 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...
>
>
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-- 


Felix Naschold
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Applied Economics and Management
Cornell University
313a Warren Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853, USA