Another gorgeous day in WI - sunny and a little on the cool side. The spirit was psyched but the body had not had enough recovery. My own damn fault, too. It looked like Tuesday would be a great day to ride home - favorable winds and slight chance of rain. And that was true enough at the starting point in Fitchburg and the Janesville destination. In between however, I hit a band of cold, pissin'-down rain. It only lasted for about 20 minutes but it soaked me to the bone. I called my beloved for a rescue and TT'ed to the rendezvous point to stay warm till I got to the car - about 40 minutes worth. Trashed me but good as I had ridden fairly hard on the way in that morning and was planning on a recovery ride on the way home. Needing to loosen up the legs with a nice recovery ride, Thursday looked good - SERIOUS tail wind and low chance of rain. I gotta find out who is making those estimates and have a talkin' with him. The wind prediction was correct but the afternoon weather radar showed bands coming thru. But I thought "no problem" - I will just take off from work as a band passes and surf the winds home ahead of the next band. You guessed it - the trailing band caught up to me - fast! And the winds at the leading edge - yow! At one point, I got blown sideways across the road (fortunately I ride little traveled farm roads). Got myself unclipped and stopped to let it pass - just in time as I got hit with a "gust" that felt like 60+! It almost blew me over while I was straddling the bike. It lasted for what seemed like minutes as I looked to see if there were any trees too close to me. And of course the rains followed shortly thereafter. After a few minutes of riding in the rain, I stopped to put my jacket on - and by the time I got it on, the rain stopped. A few minutes later, I was riding in the sunshine. Took off the jacket and thought NOW I can relax. And did just that, surfing the 25 mph tailwind. Until I realized the NEXT front that just 20 minutes ago was a smudge on the horizon was catching me. FAST. SO the hammer was dropped again but to no avail. 4 miles from home, the rain hit - sideways - but at least there were no microbursts. Once more, put on the jacket and once more the rain pretty much stopped by the time I got it on. And by the time I got home, it was sunny again. Crazy day!
And warming up for the race, I could tell that I just was not perky. At a steady state, I felt OK but when I upped the power - mmmm, not good. Oh well - time to ride smooth (for once, I hope!) and try to be smart (again, for once). I pre-rode most of the course but not the start. And certainly not this interesting little 180 degree turn onto a steep off-camber traverse. As I came into it, tight on the folks ahead, I see one rider slide out and I think a couple others got tangled in that as well (it all happened so fast) so I jump off the bike and ran around the 180 and past one or two of the tangled riders, jump back on for a few seconds into the stair and I am thinking THAT was not SO bad. And I am feeling OK the first lap keeping folks close but just not being smooth enough to make up for my sub-par legs. And get back to that section I ran before and thought "I am not going to even bother trying to ride" and just ran thru again. If I had a chance to practice when I was not seeing double, I would have ridden it - maybe - but off camber stuff can just psyche me out sometimes (sometimes?) and the guy who slipped was a good rider. Besides, one guy is right behind me and a couple just ahead - losing a second or so is not worth the risk of a serious screw-up. And then, it was back to the battle. I had hoped to be battling with Bob Schueler and was coming up pretty good but then the legs said "no mas" and then Don from IS Corp passed me. I told him my legs were hosed and was expecting to just fade but after hanging on him for a half a lap or so, some perkiness returned. Enough to pass him, anyway and not get passed again. And enough to not face plant when I ran thru the deep sand, hitting it was a head of steam. But not enough to grab onto Joe King when he came thru (realizing he was one of the folks tangled in that off camber section on the first lap). So lesson learned. If I am going to have any sort of a respectable showing, it will NOT be because my handling skills make up for my tired legs. No more tired legs at races!
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