My sweet new hat and Rehearsal RR

Ok, first thing’s first.  I got an awesome new hat yesterday from Life Cycle that is pure awesomeness.  Here’s a picture of it.  Never mind, the computer won’t let me download it.  Anyways, it’s really cool looking.  It’s red with a little white and it says “Sugino” on it with the S spelled with a 5.  So you know it’s hard core.  I don’t know what 5ugino says, but I’m pretty sure it means “bad ass mother” in Japanese.

Wearing a cycling hat lets people know you’re hard core and too cool for school.  Yeah it keeps water out of your eyes when it’s raining and the sun and sweat out of your eyes when it’s hot, but that’s not the real reason you own a cycling hat.   I won’t insult your inteligence by explaing why cycling hats are so cool, because everyone with an IQ over -7 knows.   Although, I didn’t start wearing a cycling hat until a few months ago, so I didn’t know what I was missing.  I knew I was missing out on something, but I didn’t know what.  That void has now been filled.

Now I have it all.  The full package.  Bibs (as opposed to shorts), bibs without holes in them, sunglasses that aren’t held together with electrical tape, a jersey that matches my bibs, cycling gloves, white cycling shoes, cycling socks, and a cycling hat.  Now when people see me walking down the street, they don’t say, “eww what’s that terrible smell?” (Ok they might still say that), but at least they don’t say, “Pffff.  Check out that poser with the mismatched bibs and shorts.  hahahahaha.  Look at him with his black bike shoes and his cotton ankle socks.  The idiot.  He probably doesn’t even know how foolish he looks.  Lets go kick him in the back of the knee and laugh at him.  Stupid idiot should be shot with a BB gun for looking that stupid.”

No.  No more of that.  Now when they see me walking down the street they say, “Daaaaamn.  Who that gangsta with the stylin hat and pimped Tifosis ‘cross his glimpsen globes?”  “He must know how to ride with his hands off the bars.”  Well I may still be mastering that last bit, but like I said, I have the hat which makes up for any lack of skill.

REHEARSAL:

The race went decently.  Not great.  Not bad.  I got in the break early on the first lap and soon what was three became 12.  Chris helped block at the front of the peleton and we quickly built up a gap of a minute.  Working smoothly together, although really slow, we had almost two minutes by the time the first of 5 laps was up.  It grew more to about 4 minutes and stayed there for just about the rest of the race.

It was the slowest break away that has ever stayed away till the end.  I don’t think I ever got over 120 watts, and I won’t know because by power tap is currently being fixed by the Saris people.  But you can take my word for it.  I tried increasing the pace a few times with some of the other guys that were wanting to go faster, and by the last lap we were down to 8 guys.

I messed up at the end, waiting with the other guys to sprint it out at the last 100 meters (the 200 meter marker was not at 200 meters by the way, OBRA).  I should have held a hard pace at the base of the climb for a longer effort at the end, because I know my sprint isn’t nearly as good as my 1 minute power.  Wes and Roman beat me in the end.  Dern it all.

But I caught a glimpse of my hat in the reflection of someone’s car window shortly after crossing the finish line and my ego was immediately boosted back up to top notch.

Oh, and props to the Land Rover guys for putting in 50 miles before the race.  A 130 mile day isn’t too shabby.  I like your style.

And thank you Kenji and Chris for blocking in the pack today.