First off, teammate Billy Innes had a rough July http://whydecaf.blogspot.com/ so that helps me to keep my month in perspective. He went out and raced the San Jose track last night and it looks like his August is off to a much better start!
July 1st- M35 crit in Vacaville with teammates Kevin Metcalfe and Craig Roemer. Vast attempts to break things up but it’s a field sprint. Unfortunately, they both looked to me to close and I wasn’t in a great position to do that but I salvaged 3rd place, Kevin in 12th and Craig in 20th.
July 4th- flew to Philly with Deb (and no kids!) to celebrate America’s birthday in style… pouring rain! In honor of teammate Scott McKinley I snapped this shot.
July 8th- “Never take the outside line” was teammate Harvey Nitz’ advise after I told him of my breaking into the final corner. Drats. Kevin, Mick and I had fun with our attacks but this race was destined for a field sprint so that’s when former-teammate Thurlow Rogers led out his Sonnance-Specialized teammate for the sprint. Steve was the first to the corner, Thurlow peeled off into my shot, but former Cincinnati Bengal linebacker Skip Foley sprinted to the win. I hung on for 4th. Kevin and Mick did a great job loosening up the field and getting me into good position. I just didn’t close the finish like I had dreamed of ;-)
July 15th- Masters District Track- 1st M45 kilo, 1st M30+ team sprint, 1st M40+ team sprint… I’m totally stoked since I spent 11 days of site-seeing in PA, NY and DC and had only been on my new Trek track frame 1 other time this year.
July 20 & 21st- American Velodrome Challenge- I stunk up the masters races (7th, 4th, 7th) and held my own against the elite’s (3rd, 6th and 12th). New to the track racers Michael Hernandez (Safeway) rolled through the masters and helped Ben-Jacques Mayne (Priority Health) win 2 of 3 endurance races. Jennie Reed (Momentum) tore through the women’s sprints, Joshiah Ng (Momentum) ripped through the men’s sprints and Shelly Olds (Proman, and regular Thursday Night points racer) won both of the women’s endurance races. Loads of fun!
July 29th- District Crit Championship in Minden, Nevada. Mick and Kevin teamed up to launch Kevin to the road race win the day before, so I was both inspired and nervous with the team pressure. Teammates Steve Cassani, Wyatt Weisel, Billy Innes, and Craig Roemer helped to lead out Jeff Angerman and Dean Laberge for the team one-two finish in the 35’s crit about an hour before the start of the 45’s race. In my 20 years of bicycle racing I’ve never been so relaxed before. With no teammates, a lame warm-up and racing at 5000 feet I should have been very nervous but I wasn’t. Maybe I finally realized that a crit is a lottery… since I was in Nevada I might as well gamble a little, eh? To line up with 50 guys in a 5 year age group is an impressive reflection on our sport. Assessing the field, everyone was there. Key competition looked to come from former teammate Peter Allen and his Sierra Nevada teammates, Steve Gile and his VOS teammates (Steve beat me to the line at the Wente Crit), Bubba Melcher and Ted O’Neil (Clover), Don Langley and Dan Smith (Morgan Stanley), Greg Betonte and his gaggle of Reno Wheelmen teammates (Greg had just beaten Kevin Metcalfe at Lafayette 2 week earlier). Typically races have one defining moment but this race had three. First of all, Bubba’s teammate shot out to an early lead so I gambled that the pack would not let him go. I won, he was caught. Then, Don Langley, a very strong finisher, soloed off with 12 laps to go so I gambled that the pack would not let him go. I won, he was caught. Then, with 2 to go Bubba attacked with Steve Gile on his wheel so I gambled that the pack still had some chase left in it and they brought me close enough so that I could launch across to Bubba, snag his wheel and beat him to the line. Bubba is such a great competitor and he helps me to raise my game.
Track Nationals in 4 weeks. Yippee! Larry
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