a crackin good start to the season

while this weekend was not my first race weekend of the season it felt like the proper start to the 2010 season. Sat was a 12 hr day at the track and Sunday was was the CBR criterium in Compton. I was able to stay with my teammate and awesome guy Danny Heeley at his house in Hermosa Beach. So instead of a pre 5 am call on sat morning we rolled out at 7 am to get to the track before it opened for warm up. This race was my second ride on my new fuji track pro. after getting in some opening work on the black line, i hate to recall my race at nats where i could never seem to find that pesky line.

My race ended up being 5 hrs later as the TT's before me dragged on. Warm up, sit around, repeat was the deal. When i lined up i felt good, legs open, heart pumping. Then, my start. My chosen gear for the day was just a tad too big. While i got it up to speed and had negative splits heading into the final last laps i never felt on top of the gear. When i got my time it showed. I dropped a half a second off my previous time but failed to hit talent pool standard by 8 tenths of a second. That's what kills me, it's less than a second! But i was able to see my improvement and move on, something i have been trying to do more often these days. after watching everyone kill each other in the omnium and madison the day was finally over. The best part of the weekend was having a bed to sleep in and home cooked meals, oh, and my personal favorite, a dining table. Call me old fashioned but i like sitting down to eat dinner.

Sunday dawned early and clear, the pygmy, or Les Morales, and I set off for the CBR crit. A new course for myself i was too lazy to pull the rollers out of the cart and my warm up consisted of 5 min of riding and a few sprints. The crit turned out ok, which was surprising considering how wrecked i felt from the day before. I think something has clicked as i see gaps, opportunities to gain a few places now. Coming into the last laps i found myself in the top ten, having no problems maintaining the pace. Then came the last time up the hill, into the headwind. I exploded. After rolling across the line towards the back i went to find Les, who in typical fashion had destroyed the field in the sprint. As i headed home that night i realized how fortunate i am to have these friends, these teammates, and this opportunities to further myself through sport.