Die Wochenende

Saturday morning was spent riding about 17 miles on the rollers, getting warmed up for the hour of power. At this point I need to pile up miles as I can get it. It was a great ride up until the point when a sheriff pulled out speeding pack over with his lights and sirens a'blazin'. Apparently we cyclists where scofflaws when it comes to being on the road. We stopped and listened to his lecture, said our, "Thank-you sir(s)" and off again we went. For the first couple'a miles we double filed it but once we got into the reservoir it went back to shit-on-your-neighbor mode. The climb to arrowhead golf course seemed fine. They were flying. I managed to keep contact with the main group before the last little crest then I popped. Made sure to be in the top dozen on the downhills so if there was going to be a significant split I'm going to be in that group. Yeah it was a good ride. People lost water bottles on the speed bump at the entrance to the park. Every now and again I guess they forget and they nail the speed hump at 32 mph and they have a yard sale right then and there. I remember the water bottle rolling around on the deck like a chicken with its head cut-off and said to myself, "That's a nice colored orangy solution inside that water bottle." It reminded me of the types of ice cream selections you get at the lunch line back in the day of those orange pushups. Remember them?
As we wound up the sprint I remember the dude next to me nailing these pretty good sized potholes. Holy mackeral I heard his wheels take the brunt of that and boy did it not sound mechanically forgiving. Reminded me of the physical characteristic of metal being brittle. Yikes.
After that, chatted with a dude named Tom flying the old school Vitamin Cottage colors on the way back to the cars. From there, chatted with another old acquaintance on the bike about his new ride and it's off we go to do some climbing up Highgrade road with some racers on the Acme team. On the way up to High Grade, rode with a staple of metro area cycling and historical badass, Dean Williams. Back in the day, he would pretty much top 10 any race in the metro area and the surrounding states that had altitude. He was a pretty fast dude, could TT and stage race as well. It was honor cycling next to him. Apparently the sponsor owns the trademark to Acme with Wile E. Coyote. After the big chicane at Highgrade I pulled a U-turn so's I can make it to my son's bud's party down the hill where I'm going to eat ice cream and pizza. Total it up at the truck: 54 miles in three hours. That's ite. There goes my girl-ish figure for March! As I was pedaling with a fast cadence my left hamstring cramped up. Not a good sign. Just shows my intensity's too much for my lack of fitness this time of the year. Speaking of which, I'm tentatively doing my first crit today. Nervous Nelly I am and I'll probably have multiple bowel movements before we stage to the line. That's good though, gastric emptying is good for racing...

Sunday.
On the way to Niwot the mercury kept falling and falling. It was 42° F in Conifer but when I arrived in Niwot it was 37°F! As long it wasn't raining that's cool, but it was durn chilly. Lined up for the first crit of the year next to Kenny and off we go! It was amazingly fast with a bit of the jitters as would be the first criterium of the year. Nobody went down and it was a blast. With 200 meters to go I didn't get around a whole lot of people because we were cooking but Kenny whipped out a nice sprint. Covered 25 miles in 45 minutes. That's an average of 33 mph. Not bad. Nobody wanted to work in the breakaways. The only time the pack would respond was when somebody would rocket off the front; otherwise if the breaks would've just noodled a bit quicker with no response from the pack, I bet one of 'em would stayed clear. It was odd diving in a corner, sometimes 4 deep, and there's somebody below you carving a turn and somebody on top of you doing the same thing. On one particular corner I felt a handlebar end slide off my hip but nobody went down. Every now and again people's pedals were scuffing the deck as they were pedaling through corners as was I (but my pedals didn't hit the deck). Now and again somebody's carve went wide on the turns but nothing you couldn't adjust in such a way that it didn't get too exaggerated. It was a great weekend of riding.

Hopefully I can do this again one week from today.