Painful

Great two races. I was supposed to do Branchbrook today and South Jersey Training Series tomorrow, but one of my teammates wasn't able to get in the earlier race so I just did two races today instead. The first one was okay, I finish 24 of 67 starters. I could have done better but it wasn't really an issue once I was out of the running. The second race I got 8/21 starters and participated in the sprint. I learned from my last experience about going out too early and this time around I went out too late. I still had some energy to burn when the finish line happened to pop up.

Anyway, this is someone's video of the crash that happened as we started the sprint. It was the most horrifying thing I think I've ever seen. The mixture of components breaking, carbon fiber snapping, and people shouting was absolutely miserable. It got worse when you passed and picked up the smell of burnt rubber. Ambulance came and all the works. The guy looked conscious and all though.

Non-bike related... I saw this dog eating a dead squirrel in the middle of the road today. It was slightly less horrifying than the bike crash. It was a cute little fluffy haired puppy too.

Till next time. A bit less defeat than usual.

Monsters

No crashes and kept up with the main group. That's all I meant to accomplish and I did, so I'm okay with today. I did find an opportunity to sprint up the side and maybe try to sneak in the podium. I sprinted up the right and passed the group. I thought victory was possibly somewhat in my grasp. Thought I had a sizable lead. About 10 seconds later I looked behind to see how far up I was and realized the entire peloton was on my wheel. It was so discouraging with the finish line in sight. Unfortunately my legs gave all they had and back to the group I went. I suffer from a very cycling specific condition called "not being good enough." Time-wise I was all but a few seconds from the guy who won but about 19 cyclists back.

It was silly. But I did it. And I'd do it again. That Pac-man son of a bitch ain't got nothin on me.

And there is my first defeat of 2010. Branchbrook in a couple of weeks.

Murder on the streets

First road race next Sunday. Pretty sure I'll get slaughtered. Scared of just being in the whole mess of the peloton. Crashing is a great fear of mine. Will be sure to inform my reader how it goes.