West Texas By the Numbers: Hammerfest Race Report

Here's how my week has been.

Monday: Feel sluggish and out of sorts. Allergies. Do 2x Mesa with Frank and Stanton.

Tuesday: Feel sluggish and out of sorts. Night sweats. Rainy day. No Tuesday night TT for me.

Wednesday: Night sweats. Raw sore throat all day. Do a spirited ride with Frank and Daniel. Feel like crap at the end of the ride. Stop on the way home to by sugar free popsicles for my throat. Don't really work.

Thursday: Night sweats. Feel crappy. It's a rest day. I rest.

Friday: Night sweats. Bad frog in my throat. Really, really sore throat, sneezing, and teary eyed I leave for Ft Davis at 7 am. At 0930 I receive a call from Frank saying that he and Gerry won't make it. Friday I pick up my packet, do a warm-up, feel crappy. I meet up wtih David James who pledges fidelity to Velocity for a place to crash. He even claims Velocity on his license. We eat in Alpine. I wonder several times if I should go to a hospital because my throat hurts so bad. I've been eating Chloraseptic strips like candy. When we get back to the hotel, I Google the symptoms of strep throat and determine that I don't have them. I start having a dry, unproductive cough.

Saturday: No night sweats. I wake up and my throat feels "better". I eat a real breakfast because my start isn't until 1113 for the TT. I drive down to the TT start and take pics of David warming up and his TT start. I go back to the hotel, do a decent enough warm up. Feel like a zombie and go through the motions of getting ready for the TT. I'm not particularly jazzed about the new Zipp wheels I'm riding. By now the wind is a stiff 25 to 35 MPH gust out of the SW. Head wind all the way out and quartering tailwind coming back.

Oh, by the way,I'm number 801, and I'm first in my Category. I start off feeling halfway decent and start pushing a big gear. I make the turn and keep on. About half way up the road to the turn around I start to falter, and burp up some breakfast. I made a point to drink several times because that was an issue last year.

No matter.

Shortly thereafter 805 and 806 pass me. I cannot respond. I can't get my heart rate up. I start having negative self talk and try to shake it off. The wind is oppressive. I finally hobble to the turn around and glance back and there's another rider gaining on me. He passes me in short order. I'm spinning back to the finish avg 30 mph while grinding out 9 miles previously at 17 mph avg. I feel terrible.Then 2 more riders pass me up. This is a low point. I end up getting 14th in the TT with a time of 46 and some change. No good.I go back to the hotel, shower, change, put on my numbers for the next race. I get some food and wolf it down, and attempt to take a nap.

I begin to feel worse.

I intend on doing the hill climb and then cashing in my chips. As the afternoon wears on this seems less and less like a good idea. I call Stanton who counsels me to bag it which I do gladly.

I go down to the start of the hill climb and take some pics of David starting. I then drive to the Observatory and hike up Mt Locke. I get to see the Cat 3 finish and every other finish. It was very interesting watching the finish from the stand point of spectator. Everybody struggles up that hill, and they look terrible doing it. I cheered folks, and then snapped pics and got some film of David James' finish.

As I watched my race finish, I was shocked at who won, and a bit disappointed because I could have done pretty well if I wasn't sick. David and I went to the Spaghetti dinner, and we both won prizes in the raffle.

The folks are great hear and the scenery is spectacular.Sunday: I will sleep in. I may do a light spin. David is borrowing another jersey and my race wheels. He's facing 74 miles of some of the toughest roads in Texas with some really fast company. He's going to need the support.This event is so well put together and a lot of fun, and I recommend it to anyone.

Thursday Night Crit Race Report: 3/28/97

First off, it was drizzly and overcast with a 8 to 10 mph wind from the SE creating a head and tail wind depending on where you were in the course. There was about 12 to 15 racing in a combined field of Cat 5's and 35+ 4/5's. There were also 2 women, Pamela Leblanc included in the race.

Pamela will be writing about her exploits soon I guess. (To end the suspense she got lapped several times during the race). The other woman was named Betty and she rode for Austin Flyers. I don't know what it says about me, but I was looking at her as a potential competitor--maybe it was the skinsuit.

She got dropped in the 2nd lap.

The Cat 5's consisted mainly of a bunch of UT Cycling guys. The 35+ 4/5's were myself the incomprable Daniel Norton of Velocity, Inc. and a smattering of unattached folks. The first lap started off pretty liesurely. A guy from UT Cycling went off the front-ish which means he was cruising off the front adn there wasn't much interest in him. On the 2nd lap I believe he got a flat. On the third or 4th lap in the turn going into the finishing straight, I came up the middle with an attack and got a small gap on the bunch. I glanced back and there was a rider from UT named Tony who was in last week's race. "Let's go!" I shouted to him and unlike any other time I was in a break of any kind, he glanced back and went for it.

Tony and I took turns off the front several laps creating a sizable gap with the main field and lapping Pamela LeBlanc a few times as well.
The only threat was a Cat 5 guy who caught on wiht 6 laps to go. Before he caught on, Tony noticed him and mentioned that the other rider "seemed to be taking it easy." I figured I had 35+ 4/5 in the bag, so I said, "He's first to your second unless we stay away." When we came to the finishing straight, the other rider called out "I'm on!" at which point Tony stepped on the gas and we dropped him.

Tony and stayed together until there were 2 laps to go wherein he really threw down and I had couldn't hang on. He was about 50 yards up the way the whole way. He soloed to a Cat 5 and overall victory and I sewed up 35+ 4/5.

There were puddles on the course during the race and Kenny Hill the title sponsor of the race was so kind to be sweeping them off the course during the race.

The crit was loads of fun and a real confidence builder. Afterwards when Daniel and I were watching the Cat 1,2's, I wondered aloud how Gerry King would fair in the 35+ 4/5's given his Cipollini-esque sprint.

Perhaps I'll find out some day.....

Pain a Plenty or Hurting in Fayetteville

This was my first attempt at Fayetteville. Last year's attempt was averted by
my brother's nuptials at which I was best man.

This race is a fast race. This race is a hard race. The other thing I'm
pondering is that last year as a Cat 5, I got to ponder the depths of
humiliation in my first few races and to really think I'm old and talentless.
Then like I pheonix I got some pretty good results and realized that I'm just
an average roadie with a ways to go.

Funny how things don't change because this year is starting out the same way, and
I would think that I would have the wisdom to know the difference.

Saturday night after the first RR in which I came in near the bottom, I
thought a lot about being 40 years old and getting dropped by the pack in the
first lap. I enjoyed the TT and did halfway decent getting 24th.

SUnday's RR was about survival, and I hung with the pack in the first lap and
fell off. Falling off meant falling off with the really strong headwind that
would have killed me if it weren't for the chase group I ended up with. I
finished a tad better in that race and since so many people bagged it, I
ended up being someting like 30th on GC. I cramped like you wouldn't believe
in the second RR. The biggest lesson in the second RR was perseverence. I
thought several times about cashing in my chips, and collecting a DNF. The
funny thing is a lot of people did and as a result of "hanging on" I got a
sort of good result.

The best thing about getting my ass handed to me at this race was the company
I kept. It was sooo great having lunch with the Velocity crew Daniel, Frank, and Tom after the first stage and then dinner after the TT. The comradarie really made this
race.

Additionally, I was working hard to recruite Ritchie Howell who is 38 and who finished in the top 20 GC. Ritchie says he's on for Hammerfest as am I and some other Velocity folks.

Bring the Pain

The racing season has started and Velocity's members have been representing at Walburg and Lago Vista. Since most of us are neophytes, we're still learning the ropes and feeling the price of admission for racing USCF races in central Texas: humiliation.

We've not done too well so far, and we're showing up.

The next big thing for the club is that a group of us will be racing in the 35+ Cat 4/5's at the Fayetteville Stage Race.

Stay tuned for future reports!

Presidential Briefing

Hi, all,

Welcome to the Velocity Cycling blog! I'm Robert Dole, and I am the President of Velocity Cycling club. I am also a newly minted Cat 4 racer.

We have a lot of exciting things happening with Velocity this year. First off, our new cycling kits are in, and they look great. Also we are in the planning stages of putting on a USCF race. The current race plan is a hill climb up Big View in the Riverplace Subdivision. Please check our calendar for information about meetings, rides, and other excitement.

Also a big thank you to Daniel Norton for putting this blog together as well as resurrecting the Velocity website!

Best,
Robert