Pics

I stole a couple of pictures from the University of Michigan Criterium from my teammate Jessica ("Girl Jessie") Duppler. They are a little blurry (because we were going so FAST whoooosh!) but they show some of what I was talking about.



The first is of our chase group coming through the finish area on one of the mid-to-later laps of the race. It wasn't the sprint...or even likely going into the last lap as I appear to be on the front. It's kind of hazy though. I was so focused on cornering and riding in a non-sketchy manner that I don't remember when this all took place.



This is one of the sprint finish that I was actually pretty stoked about. Looks like Julian splintered the field (he's the guy on the left side of the photo--to my right--and had taken a hearty pull going into the finishing straight) given how spread out everyone is approaching the line.

My teammate Patrick Heath is just behind me (to my left in the photo) and managed to outsprint Julian as well for the line.

Now, from the photo it would appear that I dominated some dudes in a sprint. Keep in mind that you don't see a) The UMichigan rider who apparently handed my ass to me so badly that he's not even in the photo and b) The 9 riders that were so fast they rode all by themselves in front of us for the race.

So this was a sprint for 10th. I took 11th place. And after the race, my bike CPU read "49.0 mph" as it's "Maximum Recorded Speed." It was a downhillish sprint, so I'll buy it.

Sweet.

***Edit. I did some calculations, and with my gearing I would have to have been spinning out at like 150 RPM in 50:12 to hit that speed. I am not sure that I believe it since I don't recall doing that. But I am also not sure how my computer managed to record it as I reset it before the criterium, did not descend any super steep hills, and don't recall holding my rear wheel aloft and spinning it as fast as it could go. So...fastest part of the race was the sprint. That's where I'd guess it was recorded, even though I don't really believe it.***

An extra bonus photo:



That's me about a month ago bridging up to a rider that I think is Spencer Dell from Purdue university at the DePauw University criterium. He was off the front and I really wanted to ride in a breakaway.

We were caught by the pack about 10 seconds after this picture was snapped. I am unsure who I stole it from.

Tuesday, 4/1/2008

My body was in April Fool's mode. This is a rest week. Tuesday's are my normal LT/AT workouts and I've been working up to the point where 5 x 8' feels pretty comfy.

So I did 3 x 6' last night. Torture. The first set hurt, power was probably ~325W. Second hurt worse, 290W. Third was barely finishable, ~278W.

Conclusion: Went to hard on first set. Still not quite recovered from weekend.

So it goes.