Went up to do the first stage of the Gate City Grinder. So here is a limited report on some narly racing during Stage Uno.
The masters 35+ field was small but cagey. The goal was to loosen up the field with a lot of attacks when the road went skyward. Broke off a couple guys and some others suffered a bit, but always made it back up after the planned digs. So that plan was scraped after a couple of laps. We then decided to do a dual whammy on lap 3, with Scott Allen going hard into the wind, after the short steepish hill, where I kept the pace high. Scallen went, and was able to hold off two splintered groups for about 4 miles while TTing with the wind. I had a great vantage point while tooling in the first chase group, watching everyone in both groups redline it to catch him. I told him "they suffered a lot, do it again on the last lap or forever hold your peace."
Here's where it gets good; on the last lap with 15 miles to go Scallen attacks on the flats, it takes them 5 miles to catch him. Then he attacks 4 miles down the road into the wind at the same point as last time, and once again I have a great vantage point from the chase group. The strong guys are yelling to the punch drunk ones to pull harder "come on we can catch him." To no avail. Scott held off 7 chasers the whole way. He simply had the cajones, willing to risk it all, to take over the race. So after giving appropriate congrat's, I did the proper teammate thing. I went down the street to Uncle Hank's farm and borrowed a wheelbarrow to help Scallen drag those bad boys he's slingin to his car for the next stage. How they didn't slow him down is a mystery that I'm not gonna try to solve.
Ok, all young-un's out there listen carefully on this one, very carefully. There are race smarts and then something much better, referred to as opportunity smarts. John "McWin" Mckone apparently has both. Here is the dealio- McWin and his lovely wife are having their first "little winna" soon. So John decides to race 45+ and then win's the stage (what's new) about 2 hours later. Here's where you "wet behind the ears" ones should pay close attention. No, not "I will race for 2 hours and win." That's good, but this is better. While John crosses the finish line he doesn't point upward with the number one's, or zip up his jersey and point to his sponsor, or beat his chest like a mad baboon, he doesn't do any of that stuff. He mimes holding a baby in a cradle position for the perfect photo-op for Mrs McWin to enjoy for years, AND he was planning on doing the TT stage, only to immediately after drive back home to (Park City- ETA 10:30PM) to be with her. Then re-drive three hours back early Sunday morning to complete stage trois. Way to make a big deposit in the FDIC insured Bank of Spouse, and perform the ultimate Carpe Diem at the GCG.
Up's to Gary Porter, now to be referred to as Portimal, cause the dude is part Porter, and part cycling animal- placed 6th overall in the GC at the Elkhorn Classic last week. Considering that there were some serious climbs, long stages, big competition, and the Portimal was fighting a serious ailment (so much that he couldn't tap the free keg post race) that is one hellava result. Then again, "Gary likes those long stages, since he only really starts getting warmed up at about 60 or 70 miles in."- Quote from Scallen, August 2006
Comment finis, Congrat's to Tete de la Course DH. He has been trying to win that stage for years and got it Saturday.
**Don't forget to place your top 5 TdF GC's (see the last blog) time is running out!
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3 comments:
You see my friend you can't make these posts too good 'cause then people have nothing to add. Now, if you want to make it a contest to come up with nicknames that would be a different story.
I made a blatant assumption that you're like me and check your blog every 5 min to see if anyone cares.
That assumption is most correct, my man.
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