End of Semester Update

January 26, 2009 in Race Reports

A week before yesterday my family drove to Walnut Creek for some Mt. Diablo repeats. My dad and I rode all the way up starting from each side. I was definitely pooped by the time I finished crawling up the last steep stretch for the second time. My dad was nice and rode with me, but he could’ve dropped me just as easily.

The week following was finals week at my high school. I have a bad feeling about all seven finals, which might just be my pessimistic instinct. Now I’m nervously awaiting my semester grades.

On Friday night after the last final my family drove to Patterson to the Best Western from which the Early Bird Road Race leaves from. It was rainy, and to make things worse, we arrived before we got to listen to Opie and Jimmy make Erock a peanut butter hat in honor of the peanut butter recall that affected some of our Clif Bars. (This was on Opie and Anthony on satellite radio.) We had a good dinner (veggie quesadilla for me) at a Mexican restaurant that we found last year. Luckily, my brother and I managed to find a hilarious picture of Erock’s peanut butter hat online, and then we tried to get some sleep before we woke up at six in the morning.

We had some continental breakfast (man, that low-viscosity syrup tasted funky!), and then we registered at the Velo Promo tent, which was literally a few footsteps out of the hotel door. After getting back to the room we got ready, which meant slapping on some good ol’ warming cream. We met up with Cody outside and warmed up for just a little bit. My brother and I waited for roll out, which didn’t end up happening. This is what we looked like:

We were approached by a dude who needed his number pinned. We told him that he was better off asking someone else because we never pin our own numbers because our mom always does it. Someone else offered to help him, but he was pretty pissed off that we didn’t do it and told us that someday we would have to pin on our own numbers without our mommy. I don’t understand why he couldn’t pin on his own number if he was going to make fun of us for not doing it.

Then we waited for the start. Only another exciting picture could explain what we looked like while we waited.

The 3s, which was the race that my dad and I did, were pretty fast until the climb. We hung around the back until the climb when I moved up. I blew myself up too early, but after the turn-around at the top of the climb I caught the front group on the descent. My dad didn’t make it back to the front. I took it easy and sat out a few rotations. A few people flatted from some of the rocks washed onto the course but luckily not I, which did happen last year. The race ended up in a sprint, in which I ended up second. I was pretty happy with my result.

My brother was most likely the youngest person racing that day, but he didn’t do so hot in the 4s. Here’s what his finish looked like:

Cody, however, brought home another second place for the juniors that day in the 4s. Afterwards we all went to the Patterson Lamppost Pizza. Davis also has a Lamppost Pizza which we frequent. I beat Cody at pizza-eating, but I have to admit that my pesto-sauce-and-reduced-cheese pizza was probably less hearty than Cody’s pepperoni-olives-and-mushrooms pizza. Cody also walked away second from the Dragon Punch competition after losing to some little kid there, who apparently can punch harder than Cody.

We definitely had a good day. Cody is now only a few points away from his 3 upgrade. And by my count, I now have enough points for my 2 upgrade. But I think I’ll stay a 3 for a while longer so that I can race with Cody and my brother. Plus, I think I would get my butt kicked in any Pro/1/2 road race.

In an hour I’ll do an easy, 20-mile ride with a few teammates. I hope some show up.