What was I thinking? A 45 year old's take on Basking Ridge

What a beautiful weekend. Ok, so Saturday morning Matt and I were the only takers for the 7 AM ride. And we rode for 2 hours and change in the rain. It was good to be out there. Matt's dad passed away this year, and I've had my own challenges with health, and it was fun to just go out there, with no responsibilities, and ride easy, in the rain. It felt cleansing.

Went with my family and watched the Yankees blow a game they were leading 6-2 only to lose 7-6. Now, I have been a fan all my life. But I sat right on the field level with my family. The Yankees are a big group of guys. Not fat, just big. Even Derek Jeter is big. ARod is larger than life -- all muscle. And he hit this incredible shot with the fans screaming wildly in the bottom of the 9th with no one out, and two men on, only to see it turned into a double play. Even supermen lose.

Then I read the GMSR results to see that Eneas, our superman, lost over two minutes in the easiest stage. I am disheartened, although Justin, our boy wonder, got 5th in the stage.

I go to see Young Frankenstein with my family on Sunday (Mel Brooks is one incredible 82 year old). During intermission, Tom Toal emails me that Scott Bodin won the 45+ Denville Challenge and got 2nd in the 35+ race (later I would read from Badger that Max won the field sprint and Badger did well too).

So my family accompanied me to Basking Ridge Sunday evening so I could have an easy ride on Monday morning to warm up for the first race I had done in about 6 weeks. 6 weeks earlier I had found out that my hematocrit was only 37, or pretty far below normal. But given the therapy I had gone through, the hematologist felt I was on track. Maybe on track, but zone 4 and me don't get along very well right now. And crits are pretty much all about zone 4. A little 3 and a little 5 as well, but you pretty much win or lose on zone 4 effectiveness in a crit.

But, you race in part based on innate competitiveness and, let's face it, brazen assertiveness and will to win. Thinking really doesn't factor that much into it. Heck it's a 15 mile race and the rest of the guys are 45+ or more, like me, and if you don't race you can't win, so I raced it. An hour of warmup Monday morning, absolutely perfect conditions, only 50 competitors (a small field), although there were some good ones: Aubrey Gordon (multi time national champ), Brian Wolf (multi time New England Masters Champ), what seemed like 6000 Liberty guys at their home event, the NJ Russian Rocket.

I start crits where I don't know how my form is in the same position. In the back. If I am strong, I move up. If I suck, I quit. I felt fine. In the 2nd of the 15 laps, two guys who I never even saw took off and stayed away the entire race. All zone 4. No way was I going to do that. If I could have done that I would have been suffering with Max in the 40+ in the Green Mountain Stage Race. So my lovely wife and daughters saw me in the back and said, oh well he is either saving it or he sucks today. Well, I felt I was saving it. For 3rd place, but heck, you go for what you can get (maybe...). The acceleration by the pack dropped about 10 racers in the second lap. All these guys were in the back, but were in front of me. To stay in the race, I had to accelerate faster than the acceleration. I felt good. I did it. In doing so , I yelled to Tom Toal, who had been near the front, but had drifted back. He got on my wheel, and together we then rode really fast to catch the back of the pack. Tom went back to the front, and I went back to the back, now with only 37 guys in front of me (minus the two up the road and the ten off the back). Then about halfway through the race, I ride up to Brian Wolf (who always stays about 4th wheel) and say, what's up? He said, too many guys up the road. Ok, so I take off to catch up (my moto is off the front or off the back -- it sounds good doesn't it?). This group as I get them in my sites appears to be about 5 guys. The Russian Rocket goes too, only he won't let me catch his wheel, he rides so hard I am seeing every possible color combination there is. We not only catch and drop the break group but we catch the 55+ field (who for whatever reason is on the course the same time we are -- yes we lap them). And my entire effort goes to naught as the entire 45+ pack then catches the 55+ pack. Ridiculous. So, as you have guessed, I go to the back of the pack. After 1/4 of a lap, we separate from the 55+ and are our own race again. All of a sudden, it is 3 laps to go, and I realize I forgot to try an attack with 5 to go. Would have been way too far. I don't have that much Zone 4. So I decide then and there, I'll go with 1.5 to go. What was I thinking? I wasn't. Sheer audicity or stupidity. Lots of fast guys. I don't even have my SLC-SL (fork is being replaced). Just my R3-SL. But I jump hard into the mini hill just before the bell lap. I realize I have not even created a meaningful gap. My jump stunk. Then the rider from CCB (who traveled 5 hours to compete with Brian for the regional masters championship) takes a long pull in front of me. He is first around the final first corner and I am second. He is first around the final second corner and I am second. He looks at me and I take the lead into the final third and fourth corner. Then I start to put a little more into it into the final 5th corner. Then the Russian Rocket jumps me just before the final final corner. I get back on to his wheel. But that cost me dearly. Now those colors are starting to return. We almost are cresting the final hill and I realize the Liberty guys, all 10 of them, are right on me. And the Zone 4 oxygen tank is empty. So is Zone 5. And Zone 3 doesn't count. 300 meters to go, and I am done. Cooked. Knew I couldn't win. Couldn't place. And ended up not putting on much of a show. What was I thinking? Not only do supermen lose but so do 45 year olds who should know better. But don't. Maybe next time I'll wait to attack until the final turn. Who knows, it might work.

But it was a great weekend.

Eneas by the way did not lose those 2 minutes. The race results were wrong. He ended up getting 3rd overall in one of the toughest stage races in the US.