The Mooney Express

I've been riding with Phil Mooney quite a bit lately. Its been painful to say the least, but I think its also been really good for me. Apart from the fact that he's helped me renew my love for the tt bike, he's really taught me how to suffer...

Maybe I'll be able to ride a tt soon.

Guttered

You know that feeling you get when its single file in the gutter and you can't move up? The one where all you can do is hope that the guys in front of you can hold the wheel and keep the gaps from opening. I think its called helplessness...

All weekend at Madera I felt pretty guttered. After a bad ride in the hillclimb, a busted off pedal in the time trial, and a broken spoke in the crit I almost wanted to cut my losses for the weekend and go home.

I started the road race on sunday with my mind already deep in the paincave. The first three laps were pretty mellow, but my legs were heavy and slow and I came close to losing contact a couple of times. The fourth time through the rough section of the course Bissel went to the front and lined it out in the crosswind. At this point I was three wheels from the back, in the gutter, and feeling helpless once again. I looked up a couple seconds later, saw gaps opening all over the place, and realized that this was why I love racing bikes. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and started racing for the first time all day. By the end of the rough section I had made my way all the way up to the lead group that had been whittled down to about thirty five.

On the fifth and final lap I felt better than I had all weekend. I rode towards the front the last time through the rough section, but wasn't fast enough up the last rollers and ended up towards the back of the lead group in twenty fourth. I was the only one to finish in the lead group from DBC due to multiple flats, and one crash causing dropout failure (hope your feeling alright charlie).

My ride wasn't a spectacular one by any means, but I'm very happy with it. I'm also glad that I was able to get my head out of the cave and actually have something to show from my weekend.

Congrats to Chris who destroyed it in the crit and finished 3rd behind Keith Miller and Ben Jacques-Maynes, and the Viper who took sixth in the tt.