Tour de Millersburg

It's been a while since the last post on here but things are still rolling along quite fine for the LCBC crew. I (el presidente) have been riding a lot more consistently this summer than last year and partaking in a few races, as well as group rides to try and get some fitness. I decided to sign up for the Tour de Millersburg and use my "cycling weekend getaway coupon" that I received from my dear wife for my birthday. Life is busy at home with the kids being so young and so close in age.. so this was a nice treat  to escape reality for a bit. The week leading up to the race was definitely not ideal for a stage race weekend. I purchased a new (used) car this week from a private seller and had a lot to take care of on top of a usual busy work week. The weather was rainy all week and any short window I had to ride it was pouring, so I'd just say to myself "oh I will ride the trainer after the kids go to sleep" HAHA who am I kidding, in my world that is not realistic and frankly I'm ok with that. There is a part of me that desperately wants to be training and racing while eating/breathing/sleeping cycling but that can be down the road when the kids are all out of diapers and I win the powerball jackpot. Okay enough woe is me also I think its important to note that I have a new addiction to Oreos, I don't know how that came about but I ate 2 full packages to myself this week.

Friday

This was quite possibly the longest day I've had in a while. I tried packing as much stuff for the weekend Thursday night but still did not finish. This was the morning I was picking up the car and taking care of the title transfer so after a long morning I finally could drive off in my new ride. 2002 Suburu Outback.

Then it was off to work for my 11a-11p shift. I had a normal day at the hospital on my feet for 12 hours (excellent for the muscles pre-race) and raced home to throw some more stuff into bags and pack the car full of bikes,wheels, food,and gear. I tend to bring more stuff to races than I really need, I guess this is just from past experiences of racing and trying to be prepared for the unexpected. Anything  can happen, like say the 40 degree morning in june,  no jacket packed, lesson learned. If you have it and have room bring it you never know... 12:30 am I finished packing and Im on my way up 83 north. Dinner was SUBWAY at work and a midnite snack of a tastycake cheese Danish and some pretzles. I arrived in Millersburg around 2:45 am and found a nice safe parking lot by the susquehanna. to toss and turn for a couple hours. After a not so ideal sleep situation (packed car,sleeping in drivers seat) I awoke around 6:30 to this lovely site.

My start time for the Time trial was 8:30 so I headed on up to the registration area where I was greeted by some of the many volunteers  in "Hi-Viz" yellow shirts. 

Millersburg is a quaint little town, basically what I think of as small town USA. The whole town comes out and helps with the race and it is such a refreshing change to see at a bike race. Not the office park crit if you catch my drift. Next stop the all important port o pot stop.

Stomach not feeling to well Gurgle gurgle..oh well I'm used to that. On to the warm up. Got all geeked out in my TT Gear and tested out my TT position.

seatpost flipped backwards Clip on TT Bars nothing special

Yeah that's some crappy facial hair too.

Anyways warm up went alright (or so I thought) and I was surprisingly not too sleepy. I had loaded up REAL good on the caffeine also the white chocolate cliff bar washed down with Tangy orange cytomax seemed to be the right breakfast. 

The TT 

The TT was an out and back 10 mile course with one stretch of false flat and a little kick to the finish, but basically Flat. A course David Cohen would DEMOLISH. They had a real deal "pro" start ramp. Some people chose not to ride down it and opted for the flat road start.  Not me I wheelied down that bitch.. Straight onto the course I realized  I hadn't  warmed  up enough and the lack of sleep/tired legs combined were going to make this painful.  Painful it was indeed i felt like my legs had been put through a meat grinder. And silly me I actually thought I put in a decent time . Nope! 49th outta 61 cat. 3 starters.. OUCH this could be a fluke right?. Oh well still got the Crit and Road Race.

Break Time

There was a good gap of time between the finish of my TT and the criterium. Roughly about 5 hrs..great time to Organize the mayhem and chaos i had created in my car from literally throwing all of my gear into the back of my car. 

I got the organizing done and out of the way as well as de-TTing my bike (seatpost normal, removing aero bars) I was feelin much more relaxed and also kinda relieved "the race of truth" was over with.  Also who am I kidding I've always sucked at TTs.

Back to the port-o- pot, then the Weiss supermarket, then an attempt to take a nap under a tree on a beautiful day. By this point I was so frigging tired but I was jacked up on caffeine, a little dehydrated and feelin weird. I could not nap so I just stared at the trees and layed there. 

Man this sucks somedays when I have all 3 kids by myself and im tired I would honestly pay a cool grand to doze for a couple hours. Now I have the opportunity and I'm blowin it big time. More staring at trees....

 

Criterium

My window to nap had past and I soon found my self heading back to the center of town and trying to loosen up a bit. 

From the moment I clipped in I knew this was not going to go well, It was going to be a race of survival more than placing. The thing that kinda sucks is I am usually pretty strong in criteriums. I've done some  this year and have been in the mix for the final sprints. Oh well...I was enjoying myself with all this freedom and we had AMAZING weather. However I was not enjoying the dehydration, headache, tired TT legs, and the zombie hallucinations from sleep deprivation. Soon enough though i was listening to the race official give the race instructions then "TWEET" The whistle blew and we were ripping through the tight "city " streets. There was a small steep hill that goes straight up right out of Turn 3 of the  4 corner course . The pace to me was ridiculous I was barely holding on to wheels. The inside of my mouth was like a burlap bag filled with sand and my body was once again yelling at me, but I had to keep pushin through it. I believe it was about  10 to go when they started pullin and placing riders.. Super short course. So after putting my head down and gritting my teeth up the climb solo for a lap or 2  I was givin the wave by the official and I was pulled and placed  Amazingly I managed to pull off 49th place AGAIN. But like I said to me this was more for the adventure and now I was just trying to survive. 

Me hallucinating in the crit (at least I look euro-stylish doin it though) photo credit www.joemallis.com

COMING VERY SOON THE ROAD RACE